Masquerade
by crimeson-plasma
Summary: A masked ball is being held at Ace's school, and it seems to be no good at first. But when he meets a mysterious masked man at the ball will he be able to discover who he is? or will destiny say otherwise? An Acelu fic, AU.
1. Chapter 1

Here is the first chapter of my new fanfic! I plan on making this one about 11 to 15 chapters lon g(hopefully) although I have a strange feeling that is telling me that it will end up being even longer. Well, I hope that you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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I stared at the mirror that I was currently standing in front of as I finished dressing myself for the masquerade ball that I would be attending this night. I was nearly finished, I just had to put on the cravat that I would be wearing that night and the mask. I draped the white snowy cravat that I would be wearing that evening over my white shirt, making sure that one end was slightly longer than the other. I passed the longer end over the short end, pushed the long end back up behind the knot and pulled it slightly. I then placed the short end beneath my shirt and checked the knot. It was quite wide, unlike my previous three failures at making the knot of the cravat correctly. No. I didn't like it this way, it wasn't good like this either. I quickly undid everything and started to tie the cravat around my neck yet again, trying to get it perfect. I quickly repeated all of the steps that I had previously done so many times, this time managing to tie the cravat quite well. This time the knot wasn't too tight or too lax, but I was far too lazy right now to go on and change it yet _again_. Yes, I was now almost ready to go to now to that masquerade ball that was held at school this night, I just needed to put on the clean white mask that I had kept safely hidden inside a bad since I had bought it.

I grabbed the white mask that had several black decorating lines that I would be wearing this night. It would cover all of my face except for my mouth. I had chosen this type of mask explicitly; I didn't want to be recognised this night. I didn't want to be seen by who I was and instead to be free just this night to do as I pleased and to have fun. I was Monkey D. Luffy, one of the most notorious and ignored people at school, of noble blood, the son of Monkey D. Dragon and the grandson of Monkey D. Garp, the famous hero and vice-admiral of the marine. I attended a prestigious school for only children of nobles in the whole Grand Line, and I had managed to get into this school thanks to my grandfather Monkey D. Garp even though my father was the famous leader of the revolutionary army.

I didn't have many friends at school, in fact, the only person at school that was my friend was Vivi, who was the only person that became my friend when I arrived. My father's reputation, that had been surprisingly ignored by the principle of the school when I had become of age to attend this school, had been enough of a big reason to make people not like me and to not try and befriend me, but this combined with the fact that I regularly went to the streets to talk to 'non-noble' people had been the definitive reason that had caused people to ignore me and gossip behind my back. Not that I minded of course. I had never really cared about these kinds of things. I was being judged all day by them, no matter what I did, and I had always managed to ignore them and what they said. This was why today I would be able to be free in this place. I would be able to be _myself_ without people glaring daggers at me, and on top of all I would be able to have fun. I had almost instantly decided to go to this ball when it had been announced weeks back. Vivi had been quite happy when she knew that I would go to the ball. Nami, one of my friends from out of this place, had also been quite excited, and she had said several times that she wished that she could assist to this ball.

When I had started attending this school I had immediately noticed a particular student, and what I had at first classified as a wish to befriend him had soon revealed itself to be a crush that soon turned into a love that I couldn't leave behind. Portgas D. Ace, the most popular and good looking guy at the school. All of the girls at the school had had a crush on him at some point, and some guys had too suffered this fate. I could be counted in this group, but nobody knew of my secret crush or would care about it. He was a few years older than me, just three, which wasn't too much. I had never really talked to him aside from the times that we had had to do some project together. We were in different year groups, but several times each year some teachers decided to do a project that combined several year groups. It had been during one of these times when I had been assigned to work with Ace and his best friend, Sabo. He and Sabo spent all of their time together, and they were both very popular between the girls of the school too.

Sabo came from another elite and respected noble family. His parents weren't the kind of people that I would like meeting, and I had even heard him say this several times to Ace, but this had made Sabo be respected and feared at school. Ace was the son of Gol D. Roger, the man that had become so powerful in the army that had even been considered like a king. His mother had come from a 'lower' noble family, but this didn't matter when considering just how important Ace was. He also seemed to be related to several royal families all around the Grand Line, even Vivi's. He surely was some kind of slightly distant cousin or something. Soon my thoughts drifted off to how Ace was. His body, his face, his beautiful eyes, his perfect black hair, his beautiful and tempting rosy lips... I felt a blush creep up to my face, and I quickly shook my head to not get distracted by this. This night I would have fun, I would be myself for the first time in what seemed ever and I would be judged as if I was someone new. Yes, tonight would be perfect.

I slowly brought the mask to my face, and I slowly placed it over it. The clean white mask with some black decorating lines was cold due to it not being use ever before, but it's smell didn't automatically identify it as being brand new or too old. I looked at myself on the only mirror of my room. All of my face was covered except my lips. The part of the nose was slightly pointy and slightly similar to the masks that seemed to be designed after birds. It combined in a strange and perfect way with my face, and I wasn't able to recognise myself on the mirror. I was wearing an elegant black suit that was designed following the current fashion trends. My grandfather had been delighted with the idea of me attending the masquerade that was celebrated tonight, which was quite strange of him, and he had provided me with an elegant suit that I could wear tonight.

I was wearing a completely clean white shirt, a cravat that was placed in between the shirt and a black vest with golden decorations that covered the rest of the shirt. On top of this I was wearing a long black coat that although was quite similar to the heavily decorated military coats that were worn now, was very elegant and beautiful It was black and was more heavily decorated with the same type of golden decorations that the vest had. I was wearing black 'trousers' that again were similar to the ones used in military uniforms, and then I was wearing tall black and surprisingly elegant boots. I looked like a complete stranger, even for myself.

"I'm finished" I stated as I looked at my reflection. I was ready for what was waiting for me tonight, yes, I was completely ready, and I couldn't wait. I slowly turned around and then placed on my head a three cornered black hat that also had the same type of golden decorations that the rest of the suit had. I had finally finished dressing myself up. I continued looking at my reflection on the mirror. I almost looked like a character taken out of a classical book. I was completely unrecognisable, even to myself. I was sure that Nami would love seeing me like this, and Robin would probably find me similar to one of the characters of the many books that she read. That reminded me that I had to give her another book from the school library soon, just like she had asked me some time ago. I usually gave her books from the library when she gave me back the ones that she had already read, and then I would bring her a new book, that she usually read to me.

I had met them almost when I had been forced to come to this school and town. As soon as I had arrived I had started going out of the school that I had to reside at and gone out to meet new people. I had soon managed to complete this, and almost at the same time that I had started to go out of the prestigious school that I attended I had found and met the people that proved over the years to be excellent friends: Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook. All of them were so different from each other and yet we all formed a perfect group. We had ended up becoming quite infamous around the city and being known as the "Straw hats", probably because I acted like the captain of the group, I probably was, and I always wore a Straw hat that my hero, Shanks, had given me when I was a child. Even Vivi had met my friends on several occasions over the last years, and she was even considered by us to be part of the group (she hadn't really participated in the numerous fights that we had been involved in though).

I grinned and I turned around, soon starting to walk towards the door that led out of my room in an elegant way. As I walked towards the door my boots made a soft sound as they touched the ground, which made the already elegant atmosphere around me increase. I opened the door of the room that I lived in during all of the school year (all students had an individual room at the school) and I opened the door swiftly and without making any sounds while doing this. I stepped out of the room and I closed the door as quickly as I had opened it at first. There was no one at the corridor where my room was located, and I was thankful of this. It would be hard to explain why I was dressed like this _and_ continue with my plans for this night. I walked across the corridor in the same way that I had been walking earlier unconsciously, going towards one of the common halls that were found all around the school. These were located near several rooms so that the students could spend if they wanted to time with other students and friends at a place that wasn't their respective rooms.

Not even a minute had passed when I finally reached the common room that my room was connected to. Ace's room was also connected to this common room too, and I think that his best friend's room too was connected to this one. I usually tended to spend quite an amount of time here, usually just sleeping or dozing off at the same sofa. I looked around the common room and I soon saw Vivi sitting down on one of the sofa's inside the room. I walked towards her, and saw that she was wearing a beautiful long and pure white dress with several decorations that were also of the same colour. As soon as I took a step into the room she looked at me, smiling. Her mask was of the same colour.

"Wow Luffy, you look outstanding! I can barely recognise you!" She said, with a happy and excited tone of voice.

I grinned at this, not answering but making it obvious that I was thanking her.

"Ace is going to be over you like a dog, you know Luffy?" She said with a teasing tone of voice.

I blushed lightly at this comment. "I am just going to do this to have fun" I immediately said.

"I know" She immediately answered with that teasing tone of voice and with a wink.

"Let's go, we are late" I immediately added. We were specifically 30 minutes late to the masquerade.

"I wasn't the one that spent some extra 25 minutes in the room" She then said.

I didn't reply to this and instead I just walked towards the exit of the room and towards the hall where the masquerade was being held, prepared to be myself tonight and who knows what more.


	2. Chapter 2

Here is chapter two! I hope that you like it! I would like to say that this fanfic is kind of based in the 18th century or something like that. It is not a modern AU fic, so please bear this in mind while you read this.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of the characters, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

Where was I right now? I was currently at the main hall of my school, where the masquerade was being held. I was sitting beside one of the people that I knew the most and my best friend, Sabo. I was dressed with an elegant red suit that followed quite strictly the fashion of the moment. I was wearing white shirt that was barely seen due to the snowy white cravat that I was wearing on top of it and that disappeared beneath the red and golden vest that I had. On top of that there was a very well decorated red long 'coat' that combined perfectly with the vest that I was wearing and with the slightly shot trousers that I couldn't remember the name of right now. Beneath these I was wearing white stockings like it was typical and red fancy shoes that combined perfectly with the rest of the suit.

I looked at the girl that I was currently dancing with and smiled with the best smile that I could do and trying to hide as best that I could manage the terrible boredom that felt right now while I danced with her. Yes she was really pretty, but there wasn't much about her besides that. As the song that we had been dancing to came to an end I smiled at her again, taking one last look at her. I was sure that she was some years younger than me, but her fancy mask and her quite revealing clothes made her seem to be older. I turned around and went towards the place where Sabo currently was standing at and avoiding the other girls that surely wanted to ask me to dance with them. I really didn't want my fan club right now asking me to dance.

"How was it?" I heard Sabo ask me once I was closer to him, with a teasing grin that just showed how he knew how I felt right now.

"Oh please, you know what I think Sabo" I immediately said, just making his grin increase and grow bigger.

"Tired of your fan club already?" He asked then as he got hold of a drink that was on a nearby table and offering me it.

I got hold of the glass containing the drink, who knows what it was exactly, and I quickly gulped it all down, soon feeling a lot better when I wasn't thirsty anymore. I turned around to look at Sabo. He was wearing a blue fancy mask that combined perfectly with his suit, and while who he was wasn't immediately obvious, his eyes and his blonde hair made him be quite recognisable, and if you combined this with his unique smile and grin the result was obvious. I was wearing a red fancy mask that only covered the upper half of my face, or not even that. I was starting to regret my decision of choosing this mask to wear because it didn't hide my identity. I was more recognisable than Sabo, and while I adored the attention that my 'fans' gave me, this attention that I received tired me at an incredible speed. I had already recognised who everyone at the hall was. Everyone, and this bored me out of my mind. The only person that I hadn't seen around here (and I had noticed this due to the pure boredom that invaded my mind right now) was that kid, Monkey D. Luffy.

"You have no idea. I wish I had chosen another mask so I wasn't as recognisable" I soon replied to him. "By the way, where do you think that kid, Luffy, is at?" I suddenly asked Sabo.

He chuckled "It's not like you can change that now. We just have to focus on having fun" he then said. "I bet that that kid is either stuffing his head off right now or sleeping" He said with another chuckle.

I grinned and nodded. It was sad but true. That Luffy was probably doing that right now, it seemed like it was all that he did. I really hoped right now that we would have fun here. I had danced several times already and all the dances with all the girls had been so... boring. It was as if they missed a part in them that made them be interesting to dance with. Both Sabo and I remained there, near that table, looking at the people that danced and talking to each other, sometimes stopping to eat something. Some time passed with us like that, when suddenly the doors of the hall where the masked ball was being held opened and two people entered the room, a boy and a girl.

I could recognise the girl easily. She was wearing beautiful long white dress with a matching mask that would have made any girl inside the room jealous of her, and her blue hair and her eyes... she was clearly Vivi, the princess of Arabasta. The boy was wearing a suit that while following the current fashion had a slight military touch. His entire suit was black with several golden decorations, and his mask was pure white with several black decorating lines, and while it was quite fancy it still retained its simplicity. The way that he wore the cravat almost made me want to try and pull it down, it was just perfect. All of his face except his lips was covered with his mask, and I could not recognise him. He seemed also to be quite slender, but you could tell easily by his clothes that he wasn't precisely weak at all. Who had those eyes in the school? Who could have those deep black eyes that shined so brightly? And what colour where they exactly? Was it onyx? Night?... What colour were they made of?

The boy and the girl walked down the stairs that led to the main part of the room. They walked down elegantly, especially the boy who I couldn't stop staring at. All the eyes of the people inside the room were on them, and you could easily tell that they were quite nervous because of this. I turned around and looked at Sabo, wondering if he knew who the boy was, but I soon saw on his eyes that he was just as clueless as I was. The boy and the girl went down to the main room, and just then a typical waltz song started playing. Even though they were still the centre of attention of everyone in the room the other people soon had a pair to dance with and started dancing to the music. The boy turned around to look at the girl, and Vivi just grabbed him in the way that the female waltz pair grabbed the male one. In no time they were both dancing with each other, and soon the people started stopping dancing to look at them as they strolled around the room dancing perfectly with each other. I couldn't help but look with a bit of jealousy to Vivi.

"Do you know who he is?" I then asked Sabo as I turned around to look at him.

"I have no idea Ace" He immediately replied. "I know who the one that is dancing with him is, she's clearly Vivi. But for hte boy its a different story. I wonder if they are going out or something, maybe we can ask Vivi later, she is after all our friend" he said in a way that made it seem like he was speaking to himself in a loud voice.

I just nodded and continued watching the pair dance, like everybody else. Minutes passed, and soon the song came to a stop, as did their dance. As soon as they stopped dancing many people clapped at them due to their perfect dance. I was one of the ones that did this too. They both went towards the food table to get something to eat or drink.

"Hi Vivi" Sabo said as soon as they were quite close.

They both got a drink and they turned around to look at Sabo. "Hi Sabo" Vivi replied with her usual cheerfulness.

"That dance was really good, congratulations" I suddenly blurted out.

Vivi smiled at this, while the unknown boy grinned. "Thank you" She said. I couldn't help but stare at the boy as he grinned. His grin was just so... so... so... _attracting_. I couldn't get my eyes of him now.

"Are you two going out?" Sabo then asked.

"Oh, no. We aren't going out, we are just friends?" Vivi said with a laugh. So they weren't going out? That was a big surprise. I had really thought that they were a couple.

I looked back at the boy, who still had that grin on his face. Who was he? That question was killing me. I really wanted to know who he was. He didn't seem similar to anyone that I knew, to no one. And I really wanted to know his identity.

The four of us talked to each other for a while as the music played in the background, completely ignored by us. We had quite a nice time like this, and I swear that the voice of the boy was just so elegant, silky and smooth too. His laugh was catchy too, and the only time that he had laughed I had ended up laughing too.

Many minutes had passed already, and 'suddenly' the song changed again, but this time I noticed this change. The song that now had started playing was the ever know 'Blue Danube'. I turned around to look at the unknown male and I grabbed his hand. "Dance with me" I immediately said, no, commanded. I then pulled him towards the centre of the room, and he immediately followed me, not saying no to my offer. We both went to grab the other like we had always done when going to dance a waltz: both trying to get unconsciously the leading positions.

"Are you leading or am I?" I heard him suddenly ask.

"Let me lead now" I said with a gentle and seductive smile. He just limited himself to grin too and let me lead the dance.

I counted mentally the seconds and the tempo at which the music was flowing, and when it was exactly the right time I took the first step and we both started dancing, moving across a lot of the ballroom in just a perfect way. We danced for who knows how much time, not saying anything at all and just staring at each other. I felt an almost magical feeling during the time that we were dancing, and it made me feel so good. It made me forget every problem that I had and just focus on him, who was constantly staring at my dark eyes.

"What colour do your eyes have?" I suddenly asked him out of the blue.

He seemed surprised by this too, but he soon gave me my answer. "Black" He said with simplicity.

I smiled again, who knows why. I usually never smiled in these situations. "I have better names for that colour" I suddenly said. The boy just continued looking at me, as if telling me to go on and continue talking. "Onyx, night, dark diamond..." I said as I recited all the list of adjectives that I had thought of when I had looked at his eyes earlier.

He smiled slightly, and even though his whole face was covered up I could easily tell by how he had smiled that he was blushing deeply. I stared at him too, and as I began to realise what I had just told him I blushed, quite deeply, too. When had I become this affected? I suddenly found myself wishing again for a mask that covered my whole face. God, this was quite embarrassing. We continued dancing as the songs continued changing, and as we kept dancing more and more people started looking at us with jealousy, interest or who knows what more. I easily ignored them, and quite a lot of time had passed until I spoke again.

"What is your name? Who are you?" I suddenly asked, really wanting to know who he was.

"I'm afraid that I can't tell you that" He said easily, not lying but not replying either.

"Why?" I immediately asked again. "Why can't you tell me?" I then asked again.

"I-it's a long story" He just said, in a way that made it very obvious that he was uncomfortable with me asking this. "But I do know who you are though" He suddenly said seconds later after finishing his last sentence.

This surprised me. I hadn't expected him to know who I was, or even to be from the school.

"You are Ace, and back there are Sabo and Vivi he suddenly said.

This surprised me again a lot. So he was from the school? Who was he? I was about to ask again when the song came to an end, and this time I was very aware of this. He was just staring at me in an unsure way. Soon another song started, and we soon started dancing again while looking at each other, just like we had been doing before.

"I will find out who you are then" I then said with a very confident voice. "Now I know that you are from the school" I then said with another smile on my face.

He smiled a bit dryly, but with true emotion behind his smile. I couldn't tell if he was offended by what I had just said or if he had liked it. I then smiled back at him before I spoke again, this time acting without thinking too much and giving in to the impulses that I had been keeping inside me since he had entered the room (and that I had slowly become aware of and accepted).

"And be sure that that will happen" I told him then, with another smile on my face.

His expression remained the same while I said this, but I didn't stop to take notice of this and instead I leant down, getting closer and closer to his lips. I felt my heard beating at a thousand miles per hour, who knows if it was even more. Soon our lips came in contact for a brief time, maybe it was a second or maybe a bit more. I soon broke contact, and as I got further away from him after I broke the kiss I looked up at him, and then I was sure even though I couldn't see his face that he was blushing in just the most crimson way... I opened my mouth to say something, but he was the first one to talk.

"Sorry, I have to go" He said in a quick and very nervous way. He then turned around and ran out of the room.

"Hey! Wait!" I immediately shouted as I started running after him, trying to stop him from going away. However it was no use, I didn't manage to get close to him since there were too many people inside the hall and this prevented me from getting close to him, and he also ran quite quickly too. Before I knew it he had already left the room, leaving me here. Who was he? At least I knew that he was from the school.

"I will find who you are, you'll see. I will find who you are, and you won't manage to run away from me" I then thought confidently, feeling strangely nervous and also my heart beating very fast. I grinned, turned around and started walking towards Sabo.


	3. Chapter 3

Here is chapter 3! I really didn't expect so many favs and story alerts in such a small amount of time! I'm very glad that so many of you liked this story! I hope that you will continue liking it :D Well, I'm glad that I have managed to finish this chapter now, since I have been feeling quite lazy since I published the last one. Anyways, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I didn't stop running until I reached the common room that my room was connected to. I couldn't think properly. No, scratch that. I couldn't think anything at all. My heart was beating so fast that I felt like it would go out of my chest at any moment, and I knew that this wasn't precisely caused due to the running that I had done. I still couldn't believe what had happened bare minutes ago. Ace had kissed me. _Ace _had kissed me. Ace had _kissed_ me. Ace had kissed _me_. It didn't matter where the focus of the phrase was at, it still made me feel as strange, bubbly and surprised as I was already, probably more each time that I repeated it. I still couldn't believe. The person that I liked, no, loved, had _kissed_ me voluntarily. I felt my cheeks burning right now, and I couldn't stop myself from bringing my hand to my lips and touching them. I could almost feel the soft, warm and comfortable contact of his lips on mine. I could still feel it and I couldn't help but want to feel it again. I wanted it to happen again.

"I can't believe it..." I muttered as I sat down on top of one of the many sofas that were inside the common room. "I still can't believe what has happened" I then muttered again, as touched my lips and then my mask again.

I had danced with Ace all the time (well, and with Vivi too). I had danced with _Ace_, and he hadn't turned away. This night had been one of the best that I had lived through in all my life. I had just done something that should be impossible for someone like me and someone like him, and it had been _voluntary_. His lips had been so soft, inviting and had an unnatural warmth that made me feel comfortable. It had felt so damn _good_, better than what I had ever imagined, and it had been quite a lot.

I brought my hands to my face and touched gently and by accident the mask that still was placed on my face and that had been completely forgotten of by me. I had completely forgotten that I still had the clothes that I had worn to the ball on.

"I must take these off quickly or..." I muttered as I jumped out of the sofa and I started running towards my room.

I _had_ to take these clothes off or someone would come into the room and discover that I had been the unknown person at the ball, and I didn't want that to happen. No, it shouldn't be discovered that I had been the person at the ball. It should be thought that I had been sleeping or eating all evening, like always.

I opened the door that led to my room and entered the place that I was so used to and that I had spent so much time inside of bare hours ago. I quickly ran towards the mirror, preparing to get rid of the clothes that I was wearing at the moment and put on my normal ones. I couldn't help but stare at my masked reflection then. It seemed so perfect, how I was dressed and how I had been able to be myself inside this place thanks to this mask. How I had been able to kiss the guy that I loved since who knows how long ago thanks entirely to this costume.

"It has to finish now" I suddenly said then as I slowly took off the mask, revealing my still crimson cheeks and my normal face: The face of the boy that would never be taken seriously here, of the most infamous boy at the school and of the boy that would never be liked by someone like Ace. Yes, never. And there was no way in which to avoid this. This couldn't be changed. I had to go back now to being just that person that nearly nobody talked to at this school full of people with impeccable bloodlines.

I opened a drawer of my wardrobe and I placed the mask that I had chosen so many weeks ago and wore barely hours ago and placed it there, where nobody would see. I was tempted to put it back on again, but I soon got rid of this thought and continued with the process of returning to normal. I started taking off the long coat that I wore this night, the fancy vest and the shirt, and in no time I had gotten rid of all of the clothes that I had been wearing until bare minutes ago. I walked towards my bed, where the clothes that I usually wore most of the time were at. I soon was wearing the blue shorts and the red vest that I was so used to and that I was so comfortable in, and that also made me look weaker than what I really was.

I soon had finished changing, and when I had done this I found myself staring at my reflection in the mirror yet again, remembering the events that had happened less than an hour ago. Suddenly I remembered that I had to make it seem that I had been here all evening and that I hadn't gone out of here to go to the ball, that I hadn't even gotten close to the room.

"Where would I be right now?" I asked myself out loud, not really being able to think properly.

I remained several minutes thinking, and it was some time after I had asked myself this question loudly that I suddenly remembered what I usually did at this time of the day.

"I would be sleeping or eating at the common room!" I shouted as I suddenly turned around a hundred and eighty degrees and I ran towards the door, opened it and continued running towards the common room.

When I arrived there about a minute after realising that I usually was there at this time of the day I immediately looked around me. I was wearing no longer the clothes that I had worn to the masked ball, but my sudden entrance to the room was bound to attract suspicions to me. I was neither the most discreet of people nor the best liar, but I wanted to avoid these kinds of things. I was relieved when I saw that there was no one inside the comfortable room that I was so used to. The chimney had a fire lit inside it, probably done by someone that worked at the school, and this fire gave a comfortable and peaceful atmosphere to the room and filled it with the relaxing sound of the fire as it burnt. I grinned and I went towards the sofa where I always sat at when I was here and I soon lied on top of it. Someone was bound to arrive soon here, since many students liked this place and usually spent quite a lot of time inside here.

It was not long until my prediction became true, and soon I heard a pair of footsteps coming towards the common room at a slow but visibly nervous pace.

"I already told you what happened Sabo!" I heard a very familiar voice say from not so far away.

I lied on the sofa on the same position that I slept in and I placed a cushion over my face in the most normal manner that I could manage. I was a terrible liar, and if any of them saw my face while I 'slept' they would instantly know that it had been me at that ball.

"But he didn't say his name?" Sabo questioned as they both opened the door that led to the common room.

"I already told you! No he didn't!" Ace shouted back at him.

"Okay, okay man. There's no need to react like that" Sabo then said. "But why didn't he?" He then asked Ace with a curious tone of voice as they both sat on a sofa at the common room.

"I don't know, he just said that he couldn't" Ace replied.

"He didn't give you any reasons at all?" Sabo said with surprise. "What the hell" He then added after that, quite surprised and confused about the whole deal.

"He just said it was a long story" Ace then said, visibly less happy about this. "I don't care though, I will find him" He then added.

"How will you, you have no data about him" Sabo said with shock.

Ace grinned at this. "Oh, yes I have" He then said with a light cheeky smile on his face.

"What do you mean?" Sabo then questioned as he looked at Ace.

Ace then looked away from Sabo and looked into the fire. "He was about 172 cm, had black hair, quite muscular, but not too much, is from the school and had the most beautiful onyx eyes that I have ever seen" Ace then said with a surprisingly serious tone of voice. "And his lips were so soft..." He then added in a very low tone of voice that was not low enough to

"Wow, he really made you fall hard for him in such a small amount of time" Sabo commented.

Ace blushed deeply. "N-no! I just want to find him, that's all!" He shouted at Sabo, clearly embarrassed.

Sabo laughed loudly. "Of course you do Ace" He said in a teasing way after he managed to stop himself from laughing.

I just continued lying on top of the sofa, trying to make no sounds and listening to both of them as they talked about what had happened. I really hoped that I didn't make any sounds right now and that they wouldn't notice me. I really hoped this.

"I don't care if he didn't want to say who he was, I will find who he was soon" He said with a confident and dead serious tone of voice.

"Ace, how do you know that he was from the school?" Sabo suddenly asked. "You know that he could have been from outside the school" He then added.

"He said that he knew who we were" Ace easily replied.

"Many people know us, including people from outside the school" Sabo then said.

"I know that we are known for various reasons Sabo, but he said that he knew us and Vivi" Ace then replied.

"I see" Sabo said. "So he had to be from the school then, there's no other way" He then said with realisation in his voice.

"However I haven't seen someone like him in the whole of the school" Ace suddenly said, "I wonder who he was" He then added.

"The only thing that I wonder is why he didn't want to say who he was" Sabo just replied.

"He may have had his reasons" Ace soon said, defending me. "However it doesn't matter since I will find him" Ace then said.

"I'm not doubting that Ace, but it is stupid to not have revealed his identity like that" Sabo said, deep in thought. "He didn't reject your kiss after all, didn't he?" Sabo then asked. "He must have surely felt something then... it would be better for him if he had revealed his identity" Sabo then finished saying.

"Well, it's not like that can be changed now, the only thing that is left is to find him" Ace sad with confident again. "But maybe I should have kissed him, Sabo! I humiliated him and made him run away from the ball!" He said with a nervous tone of voice.

This statement made me grin lightly, but I soon forced the grin out of my face. I could still remember that kiss, yes, and it had been so wonderful...

Sabo laughed at this, causing Ace to blush deeply again. "Wow, you really fell hard for him" He said with a laugh in quite a teasing way.

"Shut up!" Ace immediately barked at him, just causing Sabo to laugh even more. "I told you to shut up!" he then repeated with the same embarrassed tone of voice.

"Okay Ace, okay. Let's just go to up to our rooms now, we have to get ready for tomorrow after all. Let's go down here again later, okay?" Sabo asked Ace.

"Okay" Ace said as he stood up. Soon both of them started walking towards a corridor and towards their respective rooms, and I was soon left alone at the common room.

I remained in the position that I had been in for quite some time and I almost literally jumped out of the sofa. "I better go to my room now" I thought as I started running through the corridor that took to my room. I was sure that both of them would go back down and continue talking about tonight, but even though I really wanted to know what they would say I didn't want to be there any more time just in case. I wanted to go to sleep (and eat something) too, and the only way to do this was to be inside my room. I grinned again as I remembered what had happened tonight and that kiss, and I touched my lips with my fingers for what surely was the umpteenth time this night.


	4. Chapter 4

Here is chapter six! I hope that you like it, although I am personally not so fond of this one. I prefer the last two chapters. Anyways, things will be getting more interesting from now on, you will see ;D Well, thank you to all the people that favourite this story and added it to the alerts, I'm glad that you liked it ^_^ Well, please comment with your thoughts about the story! I love favs and alerts, but a review from you guys would be very much appreciated :D

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Luffy's POV:

Before I knew it the night was over and the sun was shining again, and with it came a new day. Thankfully this new day didn't include any classes at all, since it was Sunday. I quickly dressed so that I would be able to have my breakfast before the "breakfast time" finished and I would miss the ever important breakfast that I loved so much. As soon as I had on a clean white shirt, decent and kind of formal dark trousers and matching formal shoes I went out of my room, locked the door with my key and ran towards the dining hall, wishing that I would arrive on time. We were required to wear formal clothes on school grounds, even if it wasn't a school day and we therefore didn't have to wear the uniform that we had to wear the rest of the days. It was quite annoying to wear these kind of clothes since it annoyed me to no end having to wear these kind of clothes. I preferred wearing my comfortable red vest, blue trousers and sandals to wearing a shirt, but it wasn't like I could do much about it while in school grounds.

Less than a minute had passed when I finally reached the dining hall. It was full of students who were either starting their breakfast or finishing it. At the dining hall there were five long wooden tables where the students could sit at. Each student had a place assigned on the table where they had to sit at most of the time. I still didn't know how this place was assigned, but it had something to do with the name and the surname of the student, the year group that the student was in, the area where the student's room was at and the friends of that person from what I had heard (I think that that the student could have a say in this). I always sat at a table at one extreme of the room besides Vivi during meals, thankfully, and by some strange chance to my left sat Sabo and Ace. I looked at the area where I sat at, and I noticed that there were still people missing even though it was quite late, had the ball been that long in the end? The only one sitting there was Vivi, who was talking to the girl that sat beside her. Both Ace and Sabo were still missing, which was quite weird.

I immediately made my way towards my blue haired friend, who had instantly noticed me when I had entered the room. I quickly went to the area of the room where the breakfast was served, got myself quite an amount of breakfast and then walked back to my table.

"Good morning Luffy" She said with a smile on her face as I sat at the place where I always sat at.

I grinned. "Hi Vivi" I said greeting her in a very simple way as I started to eat the food.

"So, how was yesterday?" She asked me with an excited tone of voice. "All the school knows about you" She then finished saying with an even more excited tone of voice, if possible.

"Shhhh!" I quickly said "Don't say it so loudly, I don't want anyone to know that!" I said with a low tone of voice.

"But why, from what I've heard Ace was quite..." She started saying, only to be interrupted by me.

"I know that" I said as I looked away a little and a very light red tainted my cheeks.

"Then why don't you want him to know? You have been in love with the guy since you came to this school" She said, curiosity and disappointment evident in her voice.

"I want yesterday to be a secret, I don't want him to know that he danced and kissed me" I said with a low tone of voice.

"I don't understand that, but if you want it to remain like that then I won't say anything. Yesterday was so much fun though, especially when I danced with you" She said, at first with that disappointed tone of voice and then with a happy one.

I grinned. "I am glad that I decided to go" I said with my trademark grin on my face.

"And how was dancing and... you know" She asked me with curiosity.

I turned away slightly, thinking about my answer and not really realising that the extremely light blush continued being on my cheeks. "It was nice" I said, describing what I had felt as being extremely smaller and more unimportant.

Vivi grinned, realising what I really meant. She was about to say something else when another male student of about my age suddenly talked to her and completely ignored me.

"Hey Vivi, nice dance yesterday" He said, with a light smile on his face.

"Ah, thank you" Vvi replied to him with a cheerful tone of voice.

"By the way, who is the person that you danced with?" He then asked "Everyone has been talking about it, yet nobody seems to know his identity" He then added. "It can't be... _him_, can it?" He then asked with a slightly disgusted tone of voice as he pointed at me.

Vivi looked at me for a few seconds, telling me silently that she would handle the situation since I was a terrible liar. "No, it was not him. I can't tell you who he was, sorry. I promised that I wouldn't tell" Vivi quickly said with an apologetic tone of voice.

"What a shame. Well, have a nice day Vivi" The male student said before he started walking out of the room

As soon as the other male walked away Vivi turned to look at me. "They have been asking me who you were all morning, but I didn't say anything about who you were before I talked to you" She said with an excited tone of voice. "I can't believe that so many people are talking about yesterday!" She then finished saying with an excited tone of voice.

I smiled and nodded as I took another bite of my breakfast. It was then when the other two people that sat besides us and that I didn't really want to meet right now entered the dining hall. One of them seemed to be quite tired, while the other was constantly stopping the people that were walking besides him to look at their eyes. You could practically hear him say "not this colour". Once they got their breakfast they started walking to our table.

"You really are going to do it, are you?" I heard Sabo ask with a tired tone of voice to Ace.

The other male didn't reply, and just left his breakfast on the table and started walking around the room and looking closely people's faces, height and everything. Suddenly I was glad that I was wearing a shirt that made me seem like I wasn't too muscular. Sabo sighed and started eating his breakfast.

"What is he doing?" Vivi asked the blonde male that was eating his breakfast with an incredibly tired face. I looked away from Sabo and just looked at my food as I ate.

Sabo sighed again. "He is trying to search for the person that he danced with yesterday. He was talking about what happened yesterday and that person most of the night, I could barely get any sleep" Sabo quickly answered. I was shocked by this, and I couldn't help but to cough a little.

"Are you okay?" Sabo asked me with a strange look on his face.

"J-just a cold" I quickly replied with the most sincere tone of voice that I could manage as I _still_ didn't look at him in the eyes.

Sabo looked at me for quite a while, but the brushed whatever he had though off and just continued talking to Vivi. "Whoever that person was did cause quite an effect on Ace, as you can see" He told Vivi.

"Who would have imagined that" Vivi replied with another smile. "Do you think he will find who that person is?" Vivi then asked Sabo.

Sabo chuckled. "He is Ace, he will manage to find the person, and it is just a matter of time. I am more curious about what will happen _after_ that though" Sabo said "I suppose that you aren't going to say who he was, am I right?" Sabo said with a cheeky tone of voice and a grin on his face.

"Sorry, I promised not to tell" Vivi immediately replied.

"Hahaha! I supposed that. It wouldn't be like you to tell who that person was. Well, that only makes things more interesting" Sabo said with a laugh.

"I don't see where the fun is in this" Suddenly the voice of the one that had been walking all around the dining room said from behind us with quite a sad tone.

"You are obsessed" Sabo stated.

"No! I just-" Ace started saying as he sat down on his place and started eating his food. "I just want to know who he was, that is all. And he isn't anywhere around here!" He said with an angry undertone.

I saw Vivi grin. "You will find him Ace, don't worry" VIvi said with her best serious tone of voice. I could see that she was struggling not to laugh, it was such a funny situation after all.

Ace took another bite of his food, and then continued mourning and muttering several things so low that we couldn't really understand what he was saying. "I wonder why he did say who he was!" he suddenly said.

Sabo then replied something to Ace that was soon backed by Vivi. You could tell that they were really quite good friends. Not the best, but neither were the worst. Ace then said something else more confidently, and as the conversation started to drift away and I finished eating my breakfast I decided that I didn't want to remain there much more with Ace and Sabo.

"I'll go back now my room. See you later Vivi" I said as I got up and walked out of the room, ignored by all except Vivi.

I kept looking at the floor as I walked out of the room, who knows why, not really managing to stop myself from thinking about how Ace had immediately started looking at the people around him. He hadn't looked at me at all, and it was quite obvious why he hadn't. How could I be the person that had danced with him yesterday? How could I be the person that he had been so impressed, maybe even developed a crush on? How could _I_, Monkey D. Luffy, be that person? It made no sense. I was just that strange kid at the school that nobody (except Vivi) really knew, and it would remain like this for quite an amount of time.

In no time I was back at my room, lying on my bed and not managing to stop myself from thinking about yesterday, this morning and more importantly Ace. It was eating me alive. I really needed to clear my thoughts, and the only way to do that was very probably to talk to Robin. She always helped me with these kind of things, just like the rest of my friends, or gang, did. I smiled as I remembered them and I immediately decided to go out of the school to see them again. I really wanted to. I went towards the wardrobe and quickly got out the red vest that I was so used to wearing, my blue shorts and my sandals. There was no need to get out my treasured straw hat, given to me by my friend and 'hero' Shanks since it was already placed on top of my head. Garp had somehow managed to get the director of the school to allow me to wear it even during school days even though it was completely out of uniform. Who knows what he had said to him.

Once I had finished I walked towards the door and quickly proceeded to get out of the school by going through the sevant's rooms and other hidden entrances that I had ended up knowing to ensure that I wasn't caught by the guards on my way out.


	5. Chapter 5

Here is chapter 5! I hope that you enjoy it, I certainly did enjoy writing this one. I kind of feel bad for making Luffy have such an amount of bad thoughts and Ace being so clueless about everything xD Anyways, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Sabo's POV:

I couldn't help but to look at Luffy as he went away from the table and towards his room, just like he had said when he had gotten up from the table. I didn't know the kid very well, even though we had had to do several school inter-year projects together. He was quite of a mystery to everyone in the school, and this didn't bother me in the slightest way because it wasn't like I was too pushed to knowing the kid. However there was something that bothered me. He hadn't looked at us a single time during the time that he had been eating his breakfast, and sure, I didn't know the kid at all, but if I had noticed something about him is that he always looked at people in the eye. He never looked away from anyone. So then, why hadn't he looked at us a single time?

"...and his eyes were so pretty, so beautifully dark. The prettiest eyes I have ever seen in my life" I heard Ace commenting to Vivi as she giggled for some reason at this.

I ignored Ace as he continued describing whoever he had danced with yesterday and I continued thinking about possible reasons as to why that kid hadn't looked at us in the eye. Usually it was him who looked at us most of the time and us the one that ignored him, but today it had been exactly the other way round. Was he hiding something? If so, what was it? What could possibly be a person like him need to hide? Now that I thought about it he had seemed quite nervous too, and it also seemed when I sat down at my usual seat beside Vivi that I had abruptly cut some kind of conversation between them. The whole school was talking about the person that had danced with Ace yesterday, and yet no one knew his identity, and of course Vivi wasn't going to tell who he was. The most natural thing to assume was that he wasn't a student from the school, however Ace had assured that he knew that that person was from the school.

"...I have never seen eyes with the colour that his eyes had" I heard Ace then say to Vivi again. I then heard her say something again, but I tuned out quickly and soon was bottled up in my thoughts yet again.

He was a student from the school, and that Luffy hadn't looked at _us_ a single time during breakfast. This could very well be because he was simply like that, but I knew better than that. He had seemed nervous the whole time that he had been around here, and on top of that he hadn't mentioned a single thing about yesterday. Of course he could have simply not gone to yesterday's ball (and this was extremely probable since I remember seeing him sleeping on a couch when Ace and I returned to our common room) or that he simply wasn't interested in the whole deal (which was again very probably considering what type of person he seemed to be).

However and with so many things that could prove my thoughts wrong there was something strange about this whole thing. There was something particularly strange about the way that he had acted this morning. He hadn't looked at us a single time, he hadn't showed us his eyes a single time, and the only thing that this could mean was that... even though I didn't know how the eyes that the person that had danced with Ace yesterday were like and I couldn't be sure that this was true just by looking at him... this could only mean that he was the person that Ace had danced with yesterday, that he was the person that Ace was searching for so desperately and that had kissed Ace yesterday. He was the person that Ace had almost certainly a crush on. Yes, this was definitely it. He was the person that had taken, funnily enough, Ace's heart (even though my best friend would never admit it), and the way in which he acted proved it.

I turned around suddenly to look at Ace and Vivi, who were still talking to each other about who knows what. Soon the conversation soon went back to yesterday, and even though Ace didn't ask Vivi for a clue about the person's identity ot something that could help him find him (or the person's identity in the first place) I could see in his eyes that if he wasn't or hadn't asked her this question yet it was out of pride. How could he be so stupid? How could he have not noticed? It was obvious, and it had only taken me a few minutes to realise this. Hell, if he asked the boy he would probably know immediately if it had been him. Luffy was famously such a bad liar after all.

"Ace" I said quite harshly then, cutting the conversation that he was having with Vivi.

"What is it Sabo?" Ace asked as he looked at me.

I stared at his eyes for several seconds with a poker face, not revealing a single thing about what I wanted to say. I then looked for several moments more at Vivi, squinting for a bit as I remembered that she had known all along whom the person from yesterday had been. She soon looked back at me, and by the look in her eyes I knew that she had realised what I wanted to say.

"I want to tell you something in private. It's important. See you later Vivi" I quickly said as I grabbed Ace, who looked at me with a shocked face, and literally dragged him out of the dining hall.

"S-sabo! What the hell! I was talking to her about-"Ace started saying as I pulled him out of the dining hall.

"Just shut up! It's important!" I quickly shouted back at him, cutting whatever he wanted to say.

Soon enough we were out of the dining hall, and it was only when we were here that I let go of him.

"What is this about Sabo, what the hell is suddenly up with you? Can't you see that-?" Ace quickly shouted at me.

"Shut up, what I want to tell you involves you and the person that you danced with yesterday quite a lot, so please follow me towards a place where less people can possibly hear us" I quickly told him.

He stared at me for several seconds and then nodded. "Alright" He simply said as he looked straight into my eyes.

I nodded and just started walking towards one of those corridors where there was no one at most of the time, and only stopped when I was sure that there was no one around us.

"What the hell did you want to tell me that required being so... alone" Ace said with quite an impatient tone of voice.

"Ace, I realised who the person that danced with you yesterday is" I said with a low and confident tone of voice.

Ace's eyes widened with shock. "How?" I could hear him ask to no one in particular immediately after I revealed what I wanted to tell him. "Who is he?" He then asked with an infinitely curious tone of voice.

"Didn't you realise how that kid, Luffy, didn't look at us during the whole time during which he hate his breakfast?" I asked him.

"What do you mean by that? He rarely looks at us anyways" Ace immediately replied.

I sighed, annoyed. Had he really never noticed how Luffy looked at us, more often looked at him than me, each day? Had he _really_ not realised this? "And did you realise that he suddenly seemed nervous when we sat at the table. He didn't even dare to look at us or greet us during the whole time that he was there" I then added.

"What do you mean?" I heard Ace then ask again, which only caused me to sigh quite annoyed again.

"Luffy is the person that you danced with yesterday" I then told him, having expected him to realise what I wanted to tell him before.

Ace immediately started coughing quite harshly. "What?" He asked with a voice that clearly showed his surprise. "Where the hell did you get that idea from?" He then added.

"He hasn't looked at us even once while we were beside him, and this was just during the time that you were either talking about his eyes or looking at everyone else's eyes. On top of that he didn't say a single thing, and you know just how bad lying he is. He did all of this to ensure that we didn't notice that he was the person that you danced with yesterday, so you didn't noticed that his eyes were the same as the ones that you were looking for" I said with all the patience that I could manage to gather.

Ace stared at me with an incredulous face for quite some time. "Where the hell did you get that idea from, Sabo?" he soon asked with a mocking tone of voice. "There is no way that that kid, Luffy, is the person that danced with me yesterday. His voice doesn't match, he isn't as muscular as the person that I'm searching for, hell I bet that he isn't muscular at all, and his eyes aren't the same of the same colour" He said stubbornly "And on top of that you say the same thing that I did yesterday when we went back to our common room. He was _sleeping_ on the couch, and it didn't look like he had just arrived there" Ace then added. "he simply _cannot be_ the person from yesterday" He then finished saying.

"How can you be so blind?" I said with a shocked tone of voice to Ace.

"Oh please, it is you who is being so 'blind'. It is clear that Luffy isn't the person that I'm not looking for, and you just want to stop me from looking for that person and finding the correct one. I'm going away now to look for the _real_ person that danced with me yesterday and stop listening to impossible theories" Ace then said. "See you later Sabo" He then added before he was out of the corridor, leaving me along.

I stared at the point through which he had left, not believing what had just happened. How could Ace be so blind? It was obvious that Luffy was the person that had danced with him yesterday, and it made _sense_ that he was that person. Why didn't he want to accept the fact that Luffy was that person? Why?

I laughed. "Very well Ace, if that is how you want to play then so it be. You'll end up realising that he is the person that you're looking for and that I'm right, it is only a matter of time" I said aloud to on one in particular. "I already know something more that you do, I've won this game before you did. I can't wait to see how you will react when you will learn that Luffy is the person that you are looking for" I then added with another laugh, before I shook my head, still not believing entirely what had just happened, and then went out of the corridor through the same place that Ace had left through, with the intention of looking for Luffy.

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Luffy's POV:

I was walking quickly and with expertise through the different corridors of the school, slowly but surely making my way out of the school and towards the place where my friends were at. It was forbidden to go out of the school without permission from the teachers and the parents, and since it was impossible to get permission go out of the school from a big part of all of the teachers the only way possible left of getting out of the school was by using one of the secret entrances that were located all around the school. I was currently making my way towards one, and while I knew that none of the teachers knew where none of these secret entrances were at there were several teachers 'patrolling' through the corridors. I had to avoid all of them, or else I would have to face a quite harsh detention that would surely last for quite an amount of time and that I wanted to avoid at all costs. On top of that I was also on forbidden grounds for students, and that wouldn't be too good either if any teacher found me.

I heard several footsteps coming from the corridor that I was about to turn towards, and I quickly placed myself behind a big and thick column at one side of the corridor that I was still inside of, hiding myself from the view of the teacher that quickly walked past me without taking any notice at all of my presence. As soon as I was sure that they were out of sight I went out of my hiding place and continued walking calmly through all of the different corridors.

"Hey, you!" I suddenly heard someone behind me shout quite loudly.

I immediately turned around, wondering just who the hell would want to talk to me or search for me. I was quite surprised when I saw none other than Sabo running towards me. I turned around again and started walking again, trying to make it seem as if I hadn't noticed him.

"Hey, you! Luffy!" He then shouted again. "I know you have seen me!" He then finished saying.

I sighed, stopped walking, turned around and turned around to face him quite curious about what he would want to tell me but also quite suspicious and slightly scared in some way as well. Had he noticed anything?

"Luffy" He said as soon as he was right in front of me. "I want to talk to you about... yesterday" He then said with a confident tone of voice.

I felt all air leaving me. I was in shock. What had I done wrong? What had given me away? And most importantly, did Ace know? I opened my mouth to say something, but just then I heard the footsteps of several teachers coming towards this place

"Hide!" I quickly told Sabo as I grabbed him by both arms and pulled him behind one of the many columns that filled the corridors around this area of the castle.

"W-what?" Sabo muttered, confused.

"Teachers, this area of the castle is forbidden for students. If they catch us here we'll be busted" I quickly explained to him with a low tone of voice.

We both then remained as quiet as we could manage as the particularly big group of teachers passed right in front of us, not noticing us either due to some strange luck.

"At last" I then heard Sabo say. "Thanks you for that, I owe you one" Sabo then finished saying as he turned around to look at me and then turned again and looked at something else.

I grinned and looked at him as I got out from behind the improvised hiding place. I was about to say something when I remembered what he had come to tell me in the first place, and I soon started walking away.

"So, I wanted to tell you..." I heard Sabo say just before I turned left and went into a random corridor. I had to lose him. I didn't want to talk t him about anything that involved yesterday. If I did I was sure that he would know all the truth about yesterday, I was such a bad liar after all.


	6. Chapter 6

Here is chapter 6! Some more things are revealed in this chapter, but even more will be revealed soon, you'll see :D Anyways, sorry for this chapter being so short, I had more ideas as to what more I could include in this chapter, but I decided to leave it for next one. I am not so proud of this one though ._." Well, thank you for all of the favs, alerts and reviews! You guys rock!

Disclaier: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I grinned when i finally reached the outside, as if congratulating myself. I was at last at the city, at the place where I could act freely without having to face the consequences that I would have to face if I was inside the school. I loved the city, even though all of the nobles hated it because it was "full of non-noble people", "full of dirty garbage" or similar things. It was disgraceful how there were thousands of people dying of hunger and suffering from sickness and other evils when there were so few people 'up there' that were so well off.

The castle where the school was located at (it was most similar to a castle) was at the top of a hill, surrounded by the city. Very near the hill and separated from the city thanks to quite a thick wall made out of resistant rocks there was the part of the city that was exclusive to other nobles. The access to this part was forbidden to all except to nobles. I had gone to that part a few times, and there was quite a disgusting atmosphere there. That part of the town was full of the most elitist nobles that you could possibly find. I swear that they wouldn't mind to burn to death all of the normal people or the 'lower nobles' as they called them.

I started walking through the streets through which I had appeared discreetly using one of the many secret passages that I had ended up discovering such a long time ago. I took a deep breath, taking in all of the smells that I could possibly detect at this street and that I would never be able to find inside the 'elite' parts of the city, in which the castle was included. The wonderful aroma of the food, especially the meat, of the people that walked through the streets without wearing any extremely perfumes at all, the smell of the dirt and the rubbish that was accumulated on the sides of the streets... Every single smell, even if not particularly pleasant, felt like bliss to me right now. I had missed going out into the streets, I really did. The castle and the elite parts of town were oppressive; the only place where I could truly feel relaxed, okay and free was here. It was almost as if this was something that was specific to my family, something that came with my blood. I knew that my father had always felt like this, and as much as my grandfather liked to deny this I knew that he felt the exact same thing.

I looked around me and at all of the different people that were walking, most with quite a hurry, through the streets, not noticing me. It was entertaining for me to look at them, even if I didn't know them. They were so different from all of the nobles, and I loved this fact. I loved that I could pass completely unnoticed, that I could walk through people without them looking at me while evaluating me, judging me or talking about me. I loved this, and I wished that it could always be like this.

"Hey, Luffy!" I suddenly heard someone say from a narrow and dirty street that was perpendicular to the main one where I was right now and that I had already passed.

I turned around and I immediately recognised my good friend Usopp hiding there, with no doubt to avoid being recognised by the guards. I should probably be doing the same thing, we were quite infamous after all.

"Usopp!" I said with quite a loud tone of voice as I turned around and looked at him, grinning.

"Shh! Be quiet!" He immediately said with quite a nervous tone of voice. "Come here" He then added, as he gestured me to walk to where he was at the moment.

"Oh" I muttered, nodding as I started to walk towards that narrow street where Usopp currently as at.

I quickly reached him, and as soon as I was close enough to him he grabbed one of my arms and dragged me deeper into the dark and narrow street. The ground wasn't even paved at this street (as it was the case with most parts of the town), and the floor had quite a number of puddles and small 'rivers' made of dirty water that had once been used for cleaning clothes and houses and that now was filled with all kinds of dirt, that didn't only come from the floor to where it had been thrown to. It smelt quite badly here, and there were some probably dead beggars at some sides of the streets. It wasn't particularly pleasant to be here.

"I'm glad to see you at last again Usopp" I suddenly told my friend with grin on my face. This only caused him to grin too and to repeat the same words. I had been unable to get out of the castle for a bit of time, and this had felt like an eternity.

"Luffy, let's get as soon as possible to our 'base', you know that we are quite recognisable now" he then said with a very low tone of voice.

I nodded and we quickly started walking through the streets discreetly. It was true that recently we had become more infamous, a lot more infamous. I was the leader of a 'band' that had nine members including me. We had grown quite big in the past months, and we were considered as one of the most dangerous bands that could be found at this town. We even had our own territory, and were one of the eleven most dangerous bands of this city, of Grand Line city. We were also infamous in the country, but we still hadn't reached the level at which we could be considered as one of the four most dangerous bands that there existed here, the "yonkou". Grand Line city was the capital of this country, and the only cities that could be compared in size were the so called "Eat Blue", "West Blue", "North Blue" and "South Blue", although their size was nothing in comparison. Funnily enough the police or the government still didn't have a clear idea of how our faces were yet.

A few minutes passed, and before I even knew we had both reached an old and abandoned building. Usopp went towards the entrance door and knocked once, but then pressed a hidden button that was on one of the walls near the door. Right then a hidden entrance started opening and revealing the real entrance to our 'base'. We both then entered quickly, before the entrance closed again.

We walked through several corridors until we reached a door that led to the main room. That was where we usually were all at. There were also several rooms around the base for all of the members, which had been useful for the times that the police presence outside had been so strong that they hadn't been able to go outside in case they were caught by them. Of course and like always the other seven members of the "Straw Hat" band were there. Had they known that I would finally come again today?

"Luffy!" I heard Nami immediately say, greeting me.

I said the same thing, and soon greetings of all kind flew all around the room quite quickly. We then started talking to each other, telling what new things had happened over here and on my side at the castle. This included touching the subject of that masked ball that had been celebrated

"So Luffy, was that ball nice?" I heard Nami suddenly ask after some talking about other things.

"It was nice" I immediately answered, looking away for a moment.

"Who did you dance with?" She then asked again.

"Was it a cute girl?" Sanji then asked again, with obvious interest in his voice.

I opened my mouth and closed it again, wondering what I should say exactly. Of course they already knew about the nature of my feelings towards a certain noble at the school from some time ago, but this didn't mean that I would know exactly how to phrase what I wanted to say now. In the end I decided to just go with something simple. "Ace" I said with a low tone of voice.

They stared at me thinking about what I had said for several moments and wondering if they had heard the right thing, until a minute later if became painfully obvious that they had. Usopp and Chopper immediately had a shocked face, while Brook immediately told one of his typical jokes.

"Wow, you were lucky Luffy" Robin then said genuinely happy. "Did he know it was you?" She then asked.

"No, I didn't tell him" I immediately answered "He said that he would... find me though" I then added.

"That's nice" I heard then Nami add. Since when had she been so interested or happy for my love life? What was happening here?

"Something else happened here though, Luffy" I heard Robin suddenly say after some more careless talking and usual humour.

"Oh?" I asked. I sensed by her tone of voice that this was something quite serious and that involved some other band, probably an important one for her to use that tone of voice.

"You know the band of Whitebeard?" She then asked "That one that is considered to be part of the Yonkou" She then added.

I thought about it for some time, until I finally remembered what band it was exactly (which was quite an achievement for me since I rarely remembered the names or the very existence of other bands).

"The commander of their fourth division was killed not so long ago by one and now ex-member of the band, Blackbeard" Zoro then said with a dead serious tone of voice. "Whitebeard is enraged" He then added.

I looked at them with surprised. It wasn't often that a member of Whitebeard's gang was killed. Just then several knocks on the door were heard, along with a faint voice that told us to open the door.

"Who is it?" Usopp asked.

"Let me see" Franky said as he got hold of one of his many constructions, pressed a button on it and an image was displayed on the screen of a slightly small Den Den Mushi that was at one side of the room.

"Jewelry Bonney and... Trafalgar law?" I heard Robin said with wonder "I wonder what they want" She then added.

"Open the door" I immediately said. It wasn't often that we talked to each other. Both of them had their own bands and were also counted as two of the eleven strongest bands. We hadn't fought each other over territory yet, but it was obvious that that time would eventually and unavoidable come. A few minutes passed, and soon they had arrived to the main room inside which we currently were inside of. We all turned around to look at the door as soon that they were inside the room, and we were all shocked to see them quite wounded, especially Bonney.

"What happened to both of you?" I couldn't help but ask.

"That is why we come here idiot" I heard Bonney immediately answer with quite an impatient tone of voice.

"Please sit down over there" I heard Chopper say, right before they they did this and sat down.

"You have heard about what happened to the commander of the fourth division of Whitebeard's gang, haven't you?" Law started saying.

"Yes" We all answered, wondering what this would have to do with their state.

"That man, Blackbeard. He is a danger, stronger than what you can imagine..." Bonney then started saying.

"He came to both of our territories and fought us. We managed to stop him a bit together, but if it wasn't because of the high police presence at that time and of soldiers we would have probably been defeated by him" Law said. "We wanted to tell you that he would probably attack us soon, since you are also quite a famous band" He then added "And to propose you to make an alliance with us and the other bands that are considered to be the strongest around to stop him" He then added.


	7. Chapter 7

Here is chapter seven! I hope that you really enjoy it ^_^ Thank you all for all of those wonderful reviews that you left and for all of the favs and alerts of this story (and of my account!) You guys are the best, thank you for giving this story so much love :D While I was writing this chapter I was listening to the song "God's Will" of the Naruto OST. It is so nice, really 3 It probably had an influence too on how this chapter came out. Heh, I swear that I almost cried while I wrote this. Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

The words that Sabo had told me earlier still were dancing around my head. I couldn't forget it. How could that Luffy be the person that I had danced with? It was completely ridiculous. Where had Sabo gotten such a crazy idea from? He surely had to be desperate for me to find that person soon, but that was very unlike him.

I groaned. "This is taking me nowhere" I muttered as I sat on top of my bed and covered my face with my hands. "Concentrate Ace, just concentrate" I then said to myself as I tried to relax and free my head from that annoying thought that just refused to leave my mind. Damn, I was sure that I could even _dream_ with that happening if I wasn't careful. Ugh, this whole thing was killing me. Couldn't I just continue searching for whoever he had been without stupid theories being bombarded to me? Apparently I couldn't.

I glanced at my room. It was quite messy, but it wasn't like I was going to bother changing this anytime soon. The only thing that was relatively ordered was my bed, although I knew that many people would be willing to say the exact opposite. The room was quite well decorated, and it had all of the usual furniture that could be found at a bedroom and even more. I had a small sofa, the walls almost covered with bookshelves and a desk where I usually did all of my work at. The desk was covered with piles of books of all kind, schoolwork and other things that I didn't really know what was doing there.

On one side of the table laid abandoned the fancy mask that I had used during the ball. I couldn't really bring myself to put it in a drawer, since every single time that I looked at it I remembered what had happened at the ball; the dance, his way of walking and talking, the kiss and generally speaking everything about him. At first I had supposed that I would end up forgetting him quickly, it wasn't like any of the people that I had ever danced with or been with had ever caused me much of an impact, but surprisingly enough this time it had been different. I couldn't forget him, and inside myself I found a feeling that could only be categorised as love. Love for a person that I had only known for a bit more than an hour and that I didn't know anything about. It was crazy.

My eyes soon went back to the mask, and I couldn't help but to stare at it without managing to think about anything that wasn't related to that ball or to stop doing this. I remained like this for several more minutes, until I suddenly several taps coming from the window disturbed all of my thoughts. I immediately turned around and stared at the window, immediately recognising a certain seagull that had a red envelope attached to one of its legs.

"It can't be!" I said as soon as I noticed the red envelope. It could only mean one thing, and it couldn't be good at all.

I opened the window quickly and making it crash against the rocky walls of my room and quickly grabbed the red envelope that the all too familiar seagull was carrying, and right after I did this it flew away. I stared at the envelope for quite an amount of time, wondering what it could be about. These letters were quite rare and it always was quite a mystery what they were about. I looked at the symbol that was printed on the back of the envelope in blue, Whitebeard's symbol, the symbol that I was so proud of and that I had tattooed on my back and that was my biggest honour. I quickly opened the letter, destroying the carefully made envelope and immediately set my eyes on the piece of paper that was carefully hidden inside of the envelope. It was wonderful how it seemed like there was nothing inside the envelope except to those that already knew how this worked (and that were part of Whitebeard's 'band'). I started reading what was written.

_Ace:_

_First of all I would like to say that I'm sorry for sending this letter to you two days later than what was intended, after what happened three days ago we had some problems and we just managed to resolve them. I know that you are wondering why this red letter has been sent, since it is carrier of such bad news. I will explain that now._

_Blackbeard killed Thatch three days ago. Pop's wants to talk with you as soon as possible. We will explain everything better then. After this the police raided our main base, no doubt informed by Blackbeard of its location. We are currently at the base number 7._

_Marco_

I stared at the letter for some good minutes, not managing to believe anything that was written on it. Thatch had been...? I couldn't believe it. He was such a strong man, how could that have happened to him? It was surreal, and if this had been written on an ordinary letter I wouldn't have believed it. I would have been unable to. Impossible. No. I still couldn't believe it. I needed to talk to Pop's, I really did. I wanted to know what had happened exactly, why the murder had been committed. Blackbeard... how could he? He had been in Whitebeard's gang for many years, and yet he had betrayed his trust. He had betrayed his companions and brothers. He had killed one of them without thinking about it, and had then revealed the location of the main base to the government.

I gritted my teeth, and I felt an uncontrollable rage flooding my whole being. The thoughts of how happy the last days had been had disappeared. It had been my fault. It had all been my fault. Blackbeard had been inside the second division and I was the commander of the second division. It was entirely my fault. If I had been there when it had happened Thatch would still be alive. He would be alive and the traitorous bastard that was Blackbeard would have been stopped. If only I hadn't been so concentrated on the ball, if only I hadn't been acting too highly and as if everything would always be fine, if only I hadn't been acting like a lovesick fool Thatch would still be...!

I heard a sob being emitted from me as I continued thinking of all of these things. "It is entirely my fault!" I shouted with desperation and a deep sadness going through all of my being as I punched with all my strength the wall that was closest to me, making a small crack appear. "If I had been there-!" I then shouted again as I started punching over and over the wall. Tears were falling from my eyes onto the floor as I continued repeating the same thoughts over and over again.

I stopped doing this several minutes later, once my hand started to hurt. Maybe it was bleeding, I didn't know. My vision was too blurred to know exactly. I let myself fall on top of the small sofa and I quickly moved my hands to my face, cleaning the tears that didn't stop falling. Thatch had been such a good friend from the very start; I couldn't believe that he had...

I remained like this for several moments, not really thinking about anything. It was only after some time, when I had calmed myself a bit. It wasn't acceptable for me that I broke down like this. I was a man, I should not cry. Instead I should confront Blackbeard, to make him pay for what he had done. Yes, I would do that. I would defeat Blackbeard and make him pay for his crime. I looked at the red letter, that laid abandoned on the cold floor besides the window. It was almost night time now, and the amount of light that entered through the window was less and less. The moon was already up in the sky, fighting the sun off with her silvery light and slowly taking over the warm golden one.

"It dinner time" I thought as I stared at the sky, not moving or doing anything at all.

I slowly got up from the comfortable sofa, telling myself that no matter what I would go and speak with Whitebeard as soon as possible. Luckily enough tomorrow it was Sunday and there were no classes, which would allow me to go out of the castle discreetly without it being noticed too much tomorrow. I got hold of the red letter, and quickly hid it inside a locked drawer of the table. It wouldn't be good if it was seen here. Once I had finished doing this I walked to the door that led out of my room, deciding that I would eat a quick dinner and later go to the central tower of the school, where the sky could be seen clearly, to clear my thoughts and to simply relax.

I went towards the dining hall, finding that Sabo was there talking to Vivi about something. I quickly got my food and sat with them, not noticing the absence of the other person that sat near us every day. I chatted a bit with them, looking at Sabo to see if he knew about what had happened to Thatch. He was also a member of Whitebeard's gang after all. Something in his eyes told him that he had just learnt about it too and also that he also wanted to talk to Whitebeard about it.

Time passed quickly, and soon both Sabo and I had finished eating our dinner. We walked quietly out of the dining hall and to an emptier corridor where we could talk more privately.

"You heard about what happened, right?" I quickly asked him, sadness evident in my voice.

"...yes" He said with slowly and quietly, with a hesitant tone of voice.

"I want to talk to Pop's, I thought that tonight would be a good time" I quickly told him then.

"I want to see him too" Sabo soon added with determination. "How about going to see him later on and going out of here at about 1 a.m.?" He then asked.

"It is fine by me" I then said.

"What are you going to do now Ace? I have to finish doing some homework for Monday if I want to study tomorrow for several exams" Sabo said.

"I am going to go to the central tower to relax for a bit and think. Where should we meet at the time?" I asked him with curiosity.

"The best thing will be to meet at our common room, right?" He immediately answered.

"Yes, it makes sense" I quickly answered.

"Very well, see you at the time there then" He then said before going away.

I nodded and started walking in the opposite direction, going towards the central tower of the school. It was quite big, and while it had all the classical elements of medieval towers it was quite big and had a magnificent view of the sky. I frequently went up there to relax and think, since it was almost always deserted and I was never interrupted up there. The catch was that it took quite some time to get up the, the stairs that took there were so long after all.

Quarter of an hour later I had finally arrived to the tower. I opened the door that led to the open space that I was so used to and that separated the stairs from that open space. It was a very old and quite resistant door, but some parts of it were already rotten.

"At last" I muttered as I felt the fresh night air all around me, soothing me and making me already feel relaxed.

There was a wonderful view from here, and the very atmosphere of this place made it seem like you were far away from civilisation and from every problem that you had ever encountered. This was the best thing. I walked towards the centre, and it was only a when I was almost there when I noticed that there was a person sitting on top of a crenel at the very border of the tower. He seemed to be staring at the sky from his position, but I didn't know if he had noticed me or not. I stared at the figure for some moments, thinking if I should approach him or just walk away to another part of the castle. I was about to walk away when I heard him talk.

"It's nice here, isn't it?" He asked aloud without turning around to look at me. "It's so distant from everything, even from every problem that there is" He then added.

"Yes" I said with a calm tone of voice as I stared at him, quite shocked. Could he possibly be... 'him'? The figure of the person that was sitting there surely was similar to the one of the person that I had danced with, and I was willing to bet anything that they had the same height. I looked at him, trying to recognise the person that was sitting in front of me.

I sighed inwardly as I realised that i wouldn't be able to recognise who that person was if I didn't get closer to him. I started walking towards him, and as I got closer and closer to him I realised that he wasn't wearing the school uniform, but he clearly was a student though. He had a straw hat on top of his head that hid well his whole face. It was thanks to the straw had that I recognised who he was. He was that strange kid, Monkey D. Luffy, not the person that I had danced with at the masquerade. If I remembered correctly he was three years younger than me, he probably was seventeen already. I myself was twenty, and I would finish my studies here next year. This school was almost like a university, it slowly prepared to for that and by the end, when you were twenty one (more or less) you would have already received a degree. It was a system that had become quite popular in this area. What was that kid doing here wearing something that would surely cost him quite a harsh detention at the school? Had he gone anywhere? That straw hat that he was wearing... it was familiar, and I only realised it now. I knew that I had seen it somewhere, but where exactly?


	8. Chapter 8

Here is chapter eight! I hope that you enjoy it, although I must admit that I don't feel too sure about certain parts of it. Anyways, thank you all for the fabulous reviews and all the favs and alerts! You guys are the best! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I had been sitting at the central tower ever since I had come back to the castle after meeting with my friends, and this had been quite a while ago. I liked the peace that I could find here and the magnificent view that I could get of the city. I was still wearing the clothes that I always wore when I was outside, and if a teacher saw me now I would surely get a detention. I really didn't feel like changing back to the quite formal clothes that I always had to wear here. I couldn't help but think about what Law had told me earlier. I never had had quite a lot of contact with him, but we had fought together several times. The same could be applied to Bonney. I couldn't help but wonder who that Blackbeard was. He had committed the worst crime that a person could possibly commit. He had killed one of his own nakama. It was unforgivable. Was he really that strong though? I was sitting on top of a crenel, right on the border of the tower, right over a great fall that would kill anyone.

I suddenly heard the old door that lead to this place creaking open, something that was soon followed by the footsteps of a person that made my heart beat wildly and completely out of control. I immediately felt this start to happen just because of the proximity of the Portgas D. Ace that I was in love with. Why was he here? What had brought _him_ here? This place was always empty. I quickly debated what I should do. I still hadn't turned around, so I didn't know if he had noticed me or not. However before I knew it I had started to talk.

"It's nice here, isn't it?" I said aloud quite calmly, the words escaping from my mouth before I could stop this "It's so distant from everything, even from every problem that there is" I then added with the same tone of voice.

I felt like banging my head repeatedly against a wall. Why had I talked? Had I forgotten precisely about how I didn't want to have any contact with for quite a while so that I wasn't recognised? I knew that I hadn't, so why had I talked?

"Yes" I suddenly heard him reply with quite a calm tone of voice, seconds before he started walking towards me. I couldn't believe it. He was paying attention to me?

I felt my heart beating even faster, if possible, and a wave of nervousness flooding me as he came closer and closer to me. Before I knew it he was standing right beside me, and I didn't have a clue of what to say or do.

"That straw hat of yours... it seems familiar, as if I have seen it somewhere already" I suddenly heard him start to say.

"Oh" I said "Is it?" I then asked, wondering what he was referring to. Could it possibly be that he knew that I was the infamous 'Straw Hat'?

"I must have imagined it" He then added, as he visibly shook his head.

We remained in silence for quite some time, either staring at the view in front of us or looking briefly at each other. It was during one of these times where I discreetly looked at him that he caught me looking at him, and as he glanced at my dark eyes that he had complimented so much the other night, I looked away.

"How do you know of this place?" I suddenly asked, not really thinking about my words. "Nearly no one knows about it" I suddenly added.

"I discovered it some years ago, and I usually come up here when I need to relax or think about something" He said quite slowly and truthfully. "I have never met someone up here. I know that some people know about it, but I thought that I was the only one that came here" He finished saying.

I couldn't help but laugh, and I knew that I had one of my infamous grins on my face. "I have been coming up here for years now, for... the same reasons as you. It is so peaceful up here, it helps me think about things and relax" I said.

Ace chuckled and a light smile formed on his face. He had probably been unable to stop these from appearing. "You have a weird laugh" He then said with another chuckle, making the atmosphere around us have no tension and be much more comfortable. It felt as if we were friends of some sorts.

"Shishishi" I laughed, not really bothering to reply. I had been told this several times, and it really didn't bother me at all.

We both remained then in a comfortable silence, for quite a while. I knew that I was still wearing my comfortable red vest, blue short trousers and sandals, and I wasn't completely sure that still be wearing these clothes was good, I knew that Ace was quite an honest person (after years of looking at him), but if he did know who I was out of this school would he tell? Would my 'identity' be safe? If the police or the directives of the school knew who I was who knows what they would do. I would prefer him to know that than knowing that I had been the one that had danced with him.

"How come that you are dressed like that? If someone caught you wearing that you would be in deep trouble" He suddenly added.

"I know, but..." I said, not finishing what I wanted to say and instead remaining quiet at the end.

"Do you go to the city frequently?" He then asked again, realising that I wasn't going to finish that phrase.

"I do" I said with a sigh, deciding to be honest with him. If I lied to him it would be plain obvious, and instead I decided to go along with this feeling that told me to tell him the truth without fearing the consequences, that told me that he was like a friend, that he could be trusted. "I just came back from the city, and I didn't feel like changing back to the clothes that we are forced to wear here. It is so oppressive, it is much better at the city" I said.

"I know what you mean" he quickly answered, surprising me. "Do you have friends there?" He then asked.

"Yes" I said with another grin on my face. "I'd do anything to protect them" I then added. "We get in a lot of trouble from time to time, but we all end up getting out of that trouble all together in the end" I said. "And we will get out of this one too" I suddenly added with a confident tone of voice. Yes, I was sure that we would kick Blackbeard's ass and stop him from making any damage to any of my friends.

"What do you mean?" I heard him ask with a surprisingly worried tone of voice.

"A man attacked the... bands of two friends, although I doubt that they would admit that we are friends. He will probably go for our... band next, but I'm sure that we'll stop his feet" I said.

"You have a band?" I heard him suddenly ask with a curious tone of voice.

"I am the leader of one" I said after some moments of hesitation.

"Oh" Ace said. "It is nice, isn't it? I am in a band too, and I enjoy every moment that I pass with them" He then said with another smile on his face. He then turned around to look at me again, or more specifically at my straw hat. "Oh, now I realise! I wonder how I didn't notice earlier!" He said with a shout. "You are that 'Straw Hat' that so many are talking about right now! That new rookie with the impressive bounty" He said. I stared at him, wondering what he was going to do or say next. Would he tell anyone? If he did I would be in trouble. "Your bounty is impressive, and you got it in such a short amount of time..." He muttered, turning again to look at me. I tried to remain as calm as I could, but I knew that I was failing miserably on doing this. "Don't worry though, I won't tell anyone about it. Just so we are equal I'll tell you that I am part of Whitebeard's gang. I'm the commander of the second division" He then finished saying.

We remained silent for a few more minutes, and I slowly started noticing his expression changing to one of sadness and anger. He was clenching his fist quite hard too.

"You seem sad" I then said with quite a low tone of voice as I continued looking at him. "Why is that?" I then asked again.

He remained silent for several moments. "A friend of mine was murdered by a man that I thought that I could trust" He just said. Pain was evident in his voice, and I noticed him clenching his fist so hard that his knuckles were turning white. "And it was entirely my fault" He then added "I will make sure that he pays though" he then finished saying. He suddenly turned around. "Well, I have to go now to finish doing several things" He said as he did this. "Luffy, wasn't it?" He asked as he turned around again to face me and extended his hand towards me.

"Yes" I said with another grin on my face.

"It has been refreshing talking with you here. I hope that we meet another time" He then said before he went away.

I remained there for a bit more of time, until it became late and I decided to go back to my room to get a good rest before it was tomorrow. I knew that I would have to finish quite an amount of homework and I wasn't precisely good at it, so it would take a considerable amount of time for it to be completely right.

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When I woke up the next day the sun was already high, and as I realised what this meant I got up from my bed, cursing under my breath. I quickly got dressed with a simple shirt and trousers and ran out of my quite untidy room, not really bothering to put in order anything, hoping that breakfast was still being served.

I started running through the corridors, wanting to get to the dining hall as soon as possible. When I got there I found that it was going to close very soon, and there were only a few students (with a very tired face) there.

"Monkey D. Luffy, you're late" A teacher who seemed to be permanently in a bad mood told me.

"Sorry sir, I'll be more careful next time" I quickly told him as I walked quickly into the room, saying what every single student told him to avoid any kind of confrontation.

I quickly got myself my breakfast, including quite a lot of meat, and sat at my seat. Vivi was there, having finished her breakfast without a doubt earlier. I started to eat quite quickly, wanting to finish as soon as possible so that I could get on with all of the things that I had to finish. Minutes passed quickly, and as more and more people left the room I saw a familiar figure enter it. Sabo. He was alone, and I couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't with Ace right now. Maybe he was sleeping? He had said that he had to finish several things and he could have had to be up until late. I grinned as I remembered the conversation that we had had yesterday. He was more approachable than I thought. I still couldn't believe that he was a member of Whitebeard's gang. I would have never expected it.

I finished eating my breakfast, and just as I did this Sabo noticed that I was sitting in my seat and started walking towards me quite quickly. It was then, when I noticed that he was walking towards me when I remembered what had happened yesterday, that I abruptly got up from my seat and walked out of the dining hall through the other end of the room.

"Oi Luffy!" I heard him shout as he started running behind me, trying to catch up with me.

"Not now!" I thought as I started running, trying to get away from him and avoid entirely the subject.

We started running through all of the different corridors, being closer or further away from each other depending of the moment. I avoided all of the different students and teachers that walked through the corridors.

"Stop, I want to talk to you!" I heard Sabo shout behind me.

I turned my head around to answer him, which made me unable to see what, or who, was in front of me and caused me to crash against that strange teacher that I knew that also worked for the government capturing and stopping the members of all of the different bands that plagued the city and the country, Smoker. We both fell onto the ground with quite a loud 'oof', and I immediately turned around to look who I had crashed against.

"Oh, Smokey" I said with quite a loud and amused tone of voice, not realising that this was probably was one of the worst things that I could say.

I literally heard him grit his teeth and almost growl with anger, and he was about to say something else when barely a second after I had crashed against him another person crashed against us and fell on the floor a few metres away from us.

We both looked at the person who had fallen and that had been chasing me for quite an amount of time now. Sabo. I was brought back to reality by a shout that came from the teacher that smoked non-stop through the whole day.

"You! Sabo! Monkey!" He shouted at us with quite an amount of hate that was quite evident when he called me by my surname. "What does this mean!" He then shouted again "You know perfectly that you can't run at the school! And calling me _that_ horrible name too! What a lack of respect! You're both getting a detention for the next week, no, make that two! Be at my office tomorrow right after the classes or else!" He shouted quite angrily as he got up and left. I looked at Sabo, who was glaring at me and almost irradiating hate through his eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

Here is chapter nine! I hope that you enjoy it! I am sorry for uploading this later than usual, I don't really have an excuse, but oh well. I will be starting school on the fifth, so when that happens don't expect updates to be as fast as usual. I will hopefully be able to upload another two chapters before that happens (maybe more, but that seems too ambitious). Well, I'l l just say that this chapter is longer than what I had expected xD Thank you all for all of the favs, alerts and reviews! You guys rock! ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

The classes of the day went on slowly, like always, but the prospect of having to go to a detention at the end of them all with Smoker of all the teachers made the day go on even slower, if possible. This was just so boring, and I was quite lucky since I could talk to Vivi during some of the classes that I had, but since the subjects that we had chosen weren't the same thing many of the classes turned out to be horrifyingly boring.

I was currently in maths class, bored out of my mind, not understanding much of what the teacher was explaining and just staring at the whiteboard without paying any real attention, like several other students. What was the teacher talking about anyways? She herself seemed to not be paying any attention to what she was saying or explaining. I sighed, looking around, Vivi wasn't either at this class, and this just made it more boring. Why had I even chosen to do this? I wasn't and had never been good at maths. None of the people that were currently at the room talked to me. It sounded pretty bad, but I really didn't want to or had done any efforts to talk to them, and it didn't bother me. If I did talk they would usually ignore me and act as if I wasn't there entirely.

I couldn't say that I was too saddened by this, since I preferred this to have to go to classes with Ace and Sabo right now, which would be strange. Sabo surely was suspecting something or even knew that I had been the one that had danced with Ace, and I didn't really want to confront him or have him confirming it and then telling Ace about it.

"And that will be the end of the class, you may leave now" I heard the teacher say with quite an annoyed and bored tone of voice.

We all nodded, packed our things and went out of this class and into our last class. I couldn't take off my mind what Sabo had wanted to tell me. It surely had something to do with me and the masked ball that had been celebrated, but... Was it really that he knew that I had been 'that' person? Yes. It had to be, or else he there wouldn't be a point for him to want to talk so desperately to me. If it had been another thing he would have surely mentioned it to another person. But then had he told anything to Ace? He clearly did not suspect a thing when I had talked to him yesterday. Not a single thing. But why?

I shook my head as my thoughts started turning weirder and weirder and just started making my way to my last class: history. I hadn't noticed with all of my thoughts that I had been standing still in the middle of the corridor, and I was willing to bet that several students had stopped to look at me since I hadn't been moving. The corridors weren't too full of people right now, and this made it easier to get to my next class. When I arrived there I noticed that almost everyone was at the class. I soon took my sear besides Vivi, who was taking out her textbook and copybook.

"Hi Luffy!" She said with quite a happy tone of voice.

I greeted her and smiled back as I sat down besides her, taking out my things too. This class was again quite boring, but it was nothing in comparison with how maths was. I really didn't find any subject at school too interesting, I preferred talking to my friends instead, and as a result my grades weren't the best around. I still managed to pass most of the subjects in the end, but I wasn't the best student, and it wasn't like I cared too much nor did my grandfather Garp, he was more interested in trying to get me to join the marine, which was something that didn't seem too likely, at least for me. Soon the teacher entered the room and started explaining what we would be doing in today's lesson. Once he had done this and had started explaining I started talking to Vivi while I took some notes.

"Hey Vivi" I said at first, not really saying anything.

"What is it Luffy?" She asked me with curiosity, wondering what I wanted to say.

"I already told you what happened yesterday to me, right?" I said, receiving an approving nod from her. "I think that Sabo knows about _that_" I said.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sabo's POV:

The last lesson was already over, and I was currently at Ace's room, looking at him as he got prepared for going out of the castle to see Whitebeard again. He had already gone the day before yesterday during night time, and he wanted to go again to talk to Whitebeard more and to start his search and investigation about Blackbeard. He had told everyone that he would take care of Blackbeard since the man used to be in his division and so what had happened was his fault. We had all protested about that, but no one had managed to change his mind about that.

"I wish that I could go with you to get search for and get information of Blackbeard" I muttered as I glanced at Ace, who was already prepared to go outside.

He now was wearing the trousers and boots that he always wore when he was outside, and on top of his head was his precious hat. His school clothes were now neatly placed on top of a chair at one side of the room, which was generally quite tidy.

"Then come with me!" he quickly said back.

"I can't, I got a detention yesterday from Smokey and you know how the man is" I said with quite a bored tone of voice as I remembered what had happened yesterday.

Ace laughed. "How did you get in trouble with that man? I thought that you knew better" He said with another laugh.

"I was chasing that Luffy, when he turned around to look at me, crashed against Smoker and then I crashed against them too" I quickly explained again. "That idiot..." I then muttered as I clenched my hand. I swear that I had wanted to punch him at that moment.

"What did you want to tell him?" Ace then asked with curiosity.

"I..." I started saying, not really knowing if I should bring back up what I had told him the other day. "To confirm what I told you the other day" I soon said.

"God Sabo, you've been thinking too much" Ace said with an annoyed tone of voice. "He obviously isn't him" He then added.

"Think whatever you want Ace, but I know that it is true" I said with a smirk on my face.

Yes, I was sure that he was that person, and if Ace didn't want to recognise it then it was his problem, it was him who wanted to know who the person was anyways. I couldn't help but grin as I realised that I was one step ahead of him in this game. I already knew more than him in this, and while we usually were even on most things this time I was winning him. He didn't want to recognise it though, but he would realise this eventually.

"I talked to him on the central tower the other day Sabo" Ace said.

"Yes, you already told me" I quickly said "What do you want to say about it this time?" I then asked him.

"He definitely isn't that person. I am completely sure now" He said obstinately.

I sighed. "Very well, think what you want Ace" I said as I got up from the bed. "I have to go to the detention now" I then added as I made my way to the door, stopping right in front of it.

Ace laughed again. "Good luck with that" he said as he went towards the door too.

We both went out of the room and started going towards the common room, that was when I would go to my detention and Ace to one of the secret exits of the school.

"It is you that needs the good luck, Ace" I said with a laugh then. "Good luck with that Ace, you know the man is dangerous, pops told you already" I said.

"I know, but I will beat him, you'll see" He said.

I noticed then that we had finally arrived to the common room, which meant that it was time to go to the detention if I didn't want Smoker to get too angry.

"Well Sabo see you later" Ace then said.

"See you later" I replied as I started walking towards my detention and him towards that secret exit that we usually used.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Luffy's POV:

The last class was already over, and the thought of going now to that detention made me feel tired and even more bored. Luckily Vivi had decided to accompany me to the door of Smoker's office.

"I don't want to go!" I whined as I walked.

"You know how he is. If you don't go you'll have to suffer a hell on earth" She said with a sympathetic tone of voice. "It will soon be over, you'll see" She then said with a happier tone of voice.

"You're right!" I then said with a grin on my face.

We continued talking as we walked, but I still couldn't get out of my head what had happened. I had been thinking a lot today, and I had ended up coming to the conclusion that it would be better if Ace forgot about 'me'. I loved being able to be with him, but in the end I knew that he didn't deserve being with me or feeling like that for me, even though he didn't know it was me who he was searching form. We suddenly stopped walking; we had finally arrived to Smoker's office. I was about to enter the room when I remembered what I had written earlier on during the day.

"Vivi, I wanted to ask you a favour" I said suddenly stopping right in front of the door.

She looked up at me. "Sure, what is it?" She said.

I took out the letter that was inside my pocket. "Could you give Ace this letter?" I said as I handed her the letter that had been for the last few lessons inside my pocket.

"Why would you want to give Ace that letter?" I suddenly heard a familiar voice behind me ask.

I wasn't able to reply for several moments. Sabo? What was he doing here?

"It is... nothing" I said, as I looked at Vivi and silently told her to go on and give it to him.

Sabo stared at me for several moments, clearly not believing what I had just said. It was even understandable. I was such a bad liar after all.

"Very well" He said as he continued glancing at me. "Let's enter now, or else Smoker will be furious" He then said.

"Allright" I simply answered as I entered the room, right after Sabo did.

It was quite a spacious office, and I swear that everything inside it was a complete mess. In the middle of the room there was a big wooden table where Smoker was sitting at.

"You arrived on time, what a surprise" He said with a mock amused tone of voice as he got up and walked towards us.

"Just like you said sir" I heard Sabo say with a nervous tone of voice. I gulped, and said the same thing, wondering what he would make us do.


	10. Chapter 10

Here is chapter 10! I hope that you like it! I really enjoyed writing this chapter (especially the letter). Thank you for all of the favs, alerts and reviews! I'm glad that you're all enjoying this fanfic so far ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Sabo's POV:

It turned out that we would have to put in order all of the books and things that Smoker had in his room. It wasn't too bad, considering what he usually made students do, but it was still something that would take _hours_ to do. The room was an absolute mess. It was a wonder how something could be in this state. It had been obvious that Smoker had been planning to make us do something else at the start though, but he hadn't managed to do it because of a sudden call he got to his Den Den Mushi from the government. He muttered something about a band and went out of the room, probably having to go to take care of the leader of a band or something similar. I couldn't help but to be a bit worried for Ace then, but I knew that he would be alright.

Smoker had told us to put in order the groups starting by the category and then by the name of the author and then the title. It sounded easy, but taking into consideration the ridiculous amount of books that he had inside here this view was completely wrong. Immediately after going inside the room Luffy and I had decided to first pile the books by category and author and that we would take care of the more specific order as we placed them on their respective shelves. This again seemed quite easy, but the already dirty floor now was covered with piles of books _everywhere_, and it was hard to even walk around the room. Just what had I done to deserve this?

Ever since I had entered the room there had been an uncomfortable and quite awkward silence coming from us two. I wanted to talk to Luffy and confirm my suspicions of him and question him about that letter that he surely had written and told Vivi to give to Ace. I was dying to say something about this, but the uncomfortable silence was stopping me from doing so. We had already been about half an hour in complete silence and I couldn't stop thinking of ways to break the deafening silence that was already starting to make me go crazy. It hadn't been too bothersome at first, but now was another thing.

"So, why did you start running away from me yesterday?" I suddenly asked Luffy out of the blue.

He didn't reply for some time, and it was plain obvious that he was very uncomfortable now due to the question that I had just asked. The kid couldn't lie, and just like I had discovered it and now knew I was sure that he knew very well that he couldn't lie.

"Not because I wanted to avoid talking about what you wanted to talk to me about or anything" He suddenly replied with that tone of voice that he had used earlier.

I looked at him with shock. Why had he just _confessed_ the true motive? Was he stupid or something? I stared at him with that face that directly told him that 'Now I know the truth, continue talking'.

"I-I'm serious!" He said with quite a desperate tone of voice.

I laughed. "Sure you do" I said with a joking tone of voice.

He stuttered and tried to explain himself and get away from the whole topic several times, but he didn't really manage to do this and I just continued talking.

"I already know that you were the one that danced with Ace you know" I then said.

Luffy sighed. "Was it that obvious?" He asked with a defeated tone of voice as he looked away and sat down on the floor, on top of a pile of books.

I laughed again. "Apparently not, since Ace is as clueless as ever" I said.

So he really was the one that had danced with Ace. I knew it. It had to be him; no other person could have been the one that had danced with Ace. He didn't seem too happy about it. I sat down beside near him, on top of another pile of books.

"Ace is going to be so shocked when he knows that it was you after all" I then muttered.

Luffy immediately turned around and then grabbed me by my shirt with a surprising amount of strength.

"You can't tell him!" He said "You can't tell him!" He said with quite a desperate tone of voice.

"Why shouldn't I?" I quickly asked back.

"You said that you owed me one!" He quickly replied.

I was shocked by this. I hadn't expected him to say this. "I did, but I didn't mean it like-" I started saying.

"But you did!" He quickly said.

He was looking straight into my eyes, showing a strange emotion. The way in which he had spoken and that desperation... he couldn't be _in love_ with Ace right?

"Your eyes..." I muttered "You're in love with him aren't you?" I said with a shocked tone of voice.

Luffy looked away, not answering. I could see a faint blush on his cheeks and again that look that showed that he hadn't wanted me to discover this. Not me or anyone else.

"Why don't you then tell him? You know as well as me how he has been and if you well, er, love him it would be the best thing to do" I quickly said.

"Just don't tell him!" He just replied.

"Okay, okay. I won't tell him, but you know that he will end up discovering it. This just means that I'm ahead of him, not that he will not end up knowing" I said.

"I know but... I know that I am not what he expects me to be" He started saying "and it is just a game for him, while it is serious for me. I know that he doesn't feel the same way, not now and will definitely will not feel the same way when he discovers the truth" He then finished saying with a sad tone of voice.

I sighed. "I know" I said.

As hard it was to admit it I knew that it was true. This was just a game to Ace.

"What did you write in that letter though?" I suddenly asked him.

He was silent for some time before answering. "To forget about me" He then replied quickly as he got up and went back to ordering the books.

I did the same thing. "It might be a game a game to him, but he won't do that" I said with a chuckle.

A slightly sad grin appeared on his face. "I know" He just said.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Ace's POV:

I had been walking around the corridors for quite a bit of time. I was sure that Sabo was already at Smoker's office. I had wanted to go directly to where the secret passage and exit that led out of the school was at, but I had found that for some reason there were quite a lot of students and teachers walking around the school. I wasn't wearing the permitted clothes at the school, and this meant that if anyone saw me dressed like this it wouldn't only cause immediate suspicion but also grant me an immediate detention. I was wearing the clothes that I felt most comfortable with, but saying this would have no effect on what the people thought.

I was starting to get nervous and quite impatient. I wanted to get as soon as possible to that secret passage, but I was being forced to go through longer and emptier corridors and to wait for some others to be deserted. It was a complete pain, but it was the only thing that I could do if I wanted to get outside.

More minutes passed, and I slowly managed to get closer and closer to the hidden passage. I couldn't help but think of just what Sabo could be doing in that detention, and I chuckled as I thought about all of the possibilities. Smoker was famous for not being too nice to his students, and all of the students knew very well that all of the things that were told about him were generally true. My thoughts started wandering off, ending back again on Thatch's death and what had happened. The smile that had been decorating my lips soon disappeared completely and a frown appeared instead. That man would pay for what he had done, and I would make sure that he did.

"Ace!" I suddenly heard someone shout from behind me.

I turned around and saw Vivi, who was running towards me with a letter on her hands. What could she possibly want?

I smiled lightly. "Hi Vivi" I said respectfully. She was my cousin, and probably the only one that I trusted and was comfortable around.

Viv stopped running once she was right in front of me, and she didn't say something for a while as she recovered her breath. Just for how long had she been running?

"I wanted to give you this" She quickly said as she handed me that letter.

I looked at her for several moments, wondering just what she wanted to achieve by giving me this letter. I took it and scanned the outside. It was completely blank. Who could have written this?

"What is it?" I asked her.

"A letter from _him_" Vivi replied. "I was asked to deliver it to you" She then added.

"Oh" I said as I started to open it with quite an amount of excitement inside me. What could it be about? What did he want to tell me? I couldn't wait to know all of this. "Do you know what it is about?" I then asked Vivi again.

"No, I haven't got a single idea" She answered honestly.

I focused on the letter that now was on my hands, and started reading it.

_Dear Ace:_

_I still remember when I danced with you the other day, and I thing that I will remember it for the rest of my life. It was simply wonderful and I cannot express with words enough just how wonderful it was. I feel like I am unable to. You are a wonderful person, and I will never forget you, I am not strong enough to do so, however I don't think that I am the right person for you. You mentioned that you would look for me and discover who I was, and I felt honoured that you said that. However I must ask you to stop. To forget about me and about everything that happened then. I am not the right person for you, and you must have surely known this, if not deep down. Nothing that you saw about me there and then is the real me, not even my eyes, those were eye contacts. Please forget about me and continue going on, I will never forget you. _

_D._

I was at shock. I didn't really know what to think. I felt the letter dropping from my hands and landing on the floor. I couldn't forget him, and I would never be able to. I knew how Sabo thought that this was just a game for me and how I just wanted the man of the mask. No, this wasn't true, and I had ended up realising this after some time of thinking about the whole thing. I wanted to get to know the person that was behind the mask. It wasn't just infatuation. It was love, and I knew that I would make it happen. I would discover who he was, even if he didn't want to. Suddenly the thought of that kid, Luffy, flashed across my mind. I sighed, realising that if I hadn't met that man I would have probably ended up loving him, even if he was the strangest person in the whole school.

"What did it say?" I heard Vivi ask with curiosity.

I grin appeared on my face. "To forget about him" I quickly said. "Vivi, do you have paper?" I then asked.

"Yes, why?" She asked, obviously surprised about what the letter had been about.

"I want to write a reply to him. Is it okay with you to give him the reply?" I asked her.

She grinned and nodded, soon handing me the paper and then a pen. I grinned and started writing.


	11. Chapter 11

Here is chapter 11! I hope that you will enjoy it! You'll see, things will get more interesting now. I'm also getting closer and closer to the end of this story now ;D Well, tomorrow I'm starting school, so that means that I won't be able to update as quickly as I have been doing (more or less) during the summer. I'll try to update one or two times a week usually, although if everything goes well I'll update tomorrow (if I don't get too much work). Well, thank you all for the reviews, the favs and the alerts! I'm very glad that you all like the story so far ^_^

By the way! Wonderful kittymoon14 drew a picture based on this story! It's great, please check it out ^_^ (links without spaces)

http:/ kittymoon14. /# / d48ecup

http:/ kittymoon14. deviantart. com/ #/ d48ecx6

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story

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Luffy's POV:

I didn't know how much time had passed, but by the time when Sabo and I had somehow managed to finish ordering the books by category and author Smoker came back, holding the two weapons that he seemed to carry all the time for some strange reason and with several stains of blood on his jacked, that by the look of it wasn't dry yet. Just what had he done at the town?

That stupid member of the Straw Hats..." I heard him mutter "Next time I'll capture him and force him to tell me who the hell Straw Hat is. I didn't know that he ran so fast" He then finished saying as he entered the room and sat on his chair, at the centre of the room.

I felt myself pale at this comment and Sabo's look on me as this happened. Just what had Smoker done at the town? Was everyone okay? If he had harmed any of them I swear that I would make him pay. No one harmed my nakama. No one. He remained there for quite some time, staring at the table and filling the room with the smoke of the cigar that he was smoking. He didn't realise that we were there until several minutes after he had entered.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked with an annoyed tone of voice.

"We had a detention with you sir" Sabo said with a respectful tone of voice.

Smoker stared, no, glared at him for one minute straight, thinking without a doubt about what Sabo had said. Had he really forgotten about our detention?

"True" He then said after some time with that very same annoyed tone of voice.

He got up and looked around the room, walking around us for about a minute. I couldn't help but to look down as I remembered what he had muttered. It was sheer luck that no one had realised that I was 'Straw Hat' yet, but I had a feeling that this man would end up knowing. He had caught so many leaders of so many bands, and I had become quite famous recently...

"Get the hell out of here, both of you. And don't come back" He suddenly said "Don't do what you did again, you hear me?"

"So then we won't have to come here for the rest of the-?" I started to ask, not managing to finish the sentence due to Smokey interrupting me.

"My time is too precious to waste with you kids. Besides, you did a good job. Now get out of this room" Smoker said quite angry as he inspected me

We both nodded and almost ran out of the room. As I was about to get out I heard Smoker telling me something from behind.

"Hey kid, that straw hat that you have..." He started saying.

"Oh, my grandfather gave it to me when I was a kid!" I said with my best fake enthusiasm and trying to sound as truthful as possible, something that I probably hadn't managed to.

I then went out of the room, leaving Smoker behind thinking. He had noticed that my beloved Straw Hat, that had belonged to Shanks once and that he had given me was the same or very similar to the one that 'Straw Hat' had. To my trademark outside this place.

"I better stay away from that man for quite a while, just in case" I thought as I walked down the corridor besides Sabo.

We both stopped when we were slightly far away from his office. Well, Sabo did. He turned around to look at me.

"What did Smoker mean by asking you that?" He asked as he looked at my Straw Hat, curiosity and a spark of realisation on his eyes.

I didn't answer, and instead I just looked at him in the eyes, waiting for him to realise. I didn't want to say the answer aloud here. The walls had ears. It wasn't safe. Instead I just remembered how I appeared on my "Wanted" poster. My face wasn't seen, but it was quite distinctive anyways.

I grinned in the way that I always did, perhaps with a slight maniac taint, and then pulled my Straw Hat over my head in a way that it shadowed all of my face and didn't let it be recognised with my right hand. Yes, he would know what I meant with this. I wondered for a moment just what had pushed me to trust Sabo with this secret that could very well cost me my life while I was here. I soon got my answer. "He can be trusted" I thought.

Sabo's eyes widened. "Wow! So that was why!" He said with a surprised tone of voice. "I would have never imagined it" He then added with the same tone of voice.

I chuckled and got out of the pose, soon losing all similarities with how I looked in my wanted poster. We both then remained in silence, but this time it wasn't an awkward one, instead it was one quite comfortable, one that made it seem that we had been friends for a very long time. How had this strange 'trust' developed? It wasn't like I didn't like it though, and truly I didn't really care how. I was happy to have a new friend. We stared at each other for quite a while, a smile on both of our faces as we didn't realise that someone had been listening and watching us the whole time.

"Luffy!" I suddenly heard the very familiar voice of Vivi shout from behind me.

I turned around to look at her, and saw that she was carrying an envelope. The same envelope that I had given her before, but it seemed like something was different now.

"This is for you, from Ace" She said, quite nervously. Her eyes suddenly widened as she realised that Sabo was beside me. "Luffy, I' didn't realise that-" She started saying, just to be interrupted at the end.

"Don't worry, he... knows" I said slowly and quietly.

"Here, read it" She said as she handed me over the envelope.

I got hold of it. "Do you know what it says?" I asked her out of curiosity.

"No" She said as she shook her head.

I nodded and stared at the envelope. What could he have written as a response? What did this mean? I opened it and got hold of the paper that was inside it. Inside the envelope I could spot the original letter that I had written. I stared at the reply for a while, not having expected one, and I felt Sabo and Vivi moving behind me to see what was written on the letter. I didn't mind and instead I just started reading it.

-.-.-

_D: _

_I don't understand what you mean. If it was so wonderful and it is so hard to forget don't ask me to forget about it. I have been unable to forget about it for a single second, or about you, D. Instead just give me your name, that way it will be easier for both of us. I know what you think. It is not a game for me, I want to know who you are, and nothing will stop me. Not you asking me to forget or anyone else. It was more than a simple dance, and I know that you know this as well as me. Forgetting would be useless, and I don't plan on doing this, no matter how many letters you send me. I will find who you are. _

_ PS: I know that the colour of your eyes wasn't fake. It would be too obvious if it was and they were too pretty._

_Ace_

-.-.-

I stared at the letter for a while, not knowing what to think. Did he know what this meant? Had he understood what I had wanted to tell him with my letter? Had he? Did he understand that this wasn't a game? that my feelings were too deep and that it wasn't a game? He had said that, but had he understood it? Did he mean it? Why had he decided to reply and say this? I shook my head. "Too many questions" I thought, as I started re reading the letter again and again. Suddenly I heard a laugh behind me, coming from none other than Sabo.

"I told you that he wouldn't do that" He said with another laugh.

"But does he understand that it isn't just a game? That there's more behind it than just plain curiosity and infatuation?" I said aloud, suddenly realising that I felt quite happy that he had replied this.

"I don't know, you'll have to discover that by yourself. He hasn't told me anything concrete about what he feels about the whole thing" Sabo said.

I sighed and then crumpled the letter in between my hands. I felt a tear fall from one of my eyes and roll down my cheek, ending on the cold rock floor.

"He doesn't understand, and this makes me feel sad. And yet... I'm happy that he replied this" I then muttered, clutching the letter and crumpling it further.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around to see Vivi, smiling.

"Luffy, forget about the whole thing for a while and let's do something outside" She said with a happy tone of voice.

I grinned at the thought of seeing my friends and nakama again. I couldn't wait already.

"Yes" I said with a decided tone of voice. I turned around to look at Sabo.

"What will you do now, Sabo?" I asked him.

"Ace said that he was going to go outside to find... someone. I'll go outside to help him" He said.

"Blackbeard?" I asked aloud.

Sabo was silent for a few moments, not answering. "Yes" He said after a while. "You know about what happened?" He then asked me.

"Everyone knows, at least those who are part of a band or are working for the government to try and catch band members and leaders. He killed the commander of the fourth division, right? He killed his own nakama right?" I heard Vivi asked.

I looked at Vivi, just wondering how much she knew and for how long she had known about Sabo and Ace being...

"Yes, he did. Ace made it his job now to make the man pay. I won't leave him alone in this, I feel like the man is stronger than what it seems" He replied with a dead serious tone of voice.

Both Vivi and I nodded. I couldn't help but think just how bad they had felt at the news of their friend's death by one of their very nakama. Anger, sadness, fury... so many things.

"Well, I'll get going now. I must get changed as soon as possible to get out. I can't simply go out dressing like this. See you both later" Sabo said with a happier tone of voice.

"See you later!" Both Vivi and I said happily.

Once Sabo was gone we both turned around to face each other and stared into the other's eyes.

"We must get changed first" I heard Vivi mutter.

"Yes" I just said, agreeing with her.

"Let's get changed and then meet near the secret exit near the basement, all right? There should be few people there right now" She said.

I nodded and we both started walking to our rooms.


	12. Chapter 12

Here is chapter 12! I hope that you like it I'm sorry for the delay, it was quite hard to finish this chapter. I apologise for how shorter it is compared to the rest. Anyways, thank you all for following this story, your favs, alerts and reviews! You guys rock! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Sabo's POV:

I looked around me, trying to see if any teacher was walking through the corridor that I was about to turn into. I sighed with relief as I saw that there was no one in front of me. Fantastic. I took several steps forwards, still cautious, and then started walking through the corridor, getting towards that secret exit that I wanted to use. I was sure that by now Ace was at the town, looking for Blackbeard, and I knew that if he found him he would need help or at least some support to fight him or just in case that something happened.

"Almost there" I muttered as I got closer to it.

I was now right in front of the secret exit. To anyone that didn't know what it was really it just seemed like a stone made wall that was like all of the others of the castle. I knew better than that. I reached towards the wall and touched some of the stones that composed it, pushing them inwards delicately. Once I had done this the distant sound of metal moving was heard, and before I could even notice the wall had moved quite a bit completely silently, leaving a space that led to a darker and older 'corridor' that led to the outside town. I grinned and stepped outside.

I entered the new path that had just been revealed and took a deep breath, breathing in the noticeably old very humid and cold air that was inside it. I then walked to a side and I pressed some other stones. Another metallic sound was heard, and in less time than what it took to blink the wall was back in its place, just like it had been moments ago. I grinned and started walking through the corridor.

It was completely dark and I was unable to see a thing, but I knew by memory how this passage was. It was straight most of the time, turning around just several times. I had used this passage so much that I could walk through it, open it and close it with my eyes closed or in any other hindering possible way.

I had quickly changed my clothes and put on the usual ones that I wore when I was outside and that I was known by. On top of my head was the beloved hat that I always wore whenever I could and that had become my trademark outside. I was Sabo, a member of Whitebeard's gang. I had taken many precautions, and Ace had done the same thing, to not be recognised by any of the police officers that usually were patrolling the streets and that had tried to capture us countless times. Even though I knew that we had both been very careful I was still amused by the fact that we had never been recognised by any of the police officers, but I was not going to complain about the whole thing.

An image of Thatch suddenly flashed through my mind, and I soon remembered how I was told that he had been killed. I shivered. I hadn't been told the complete details, but it had apparently been quite gory. I still couldn't help but wonder why Blackbeard had done that terrible act: killing one of your own comrades. The worst crime that a band member could ever commit. He had even seemed such a nice person all of the times that I had seen him before. Had he planned specifically to do that from a long time ago? If so why? What did he want to do?

I shook my head. I shouldn't be thinking about that right now. I should just concentrate in finding Ace. Anything else would come in its due time. Minutes passed, and soon I was outside of the old passage and at the town. It still the afternoon, surprisingly enough, but there weren't too many people walking through the streets. Strange. At this time there were many people walking around here. What could have possibly happened here?

I started walking through the deserted streets, looking around and trying to discover the reason why there was no one outside. I suddenly came across an old man that was running away from some street, absolutely terrified. I tried to stop him to ask him what was happening, but he didn't even notice that I was there. I just continued walking through the streets, gripping the long pipe that I usually used as weapon and determined to get answers. Had this something to do with Ace or Blackbeard?

Minutes passed, and it wasn't until I reached another part of the city that I realise just how messed up the town was and the reason why there was no one in the streets. I had finally spotted Ace, and he was fighting with... Blackbeard. I grinned and ran forwards, prepared to attack Blackbeard, I would help Ace even if he didn't want me to.

I ran towards the man, getting quite quickly into an aggressive position and preparing my attack. Soon I had managed to hit Blackbeard by surprise, sending him into a building. I grinned then, satisfied with what I had just done.

"Sabo!" I heard Ace say with evident surprise. "What are you doing here?" He then asked.

I grinned. "I couldn't exactly let you fight the man alone, could I?" I asked him.

Ace grinned and got into another defensive stance. He was still fighting with punches alone, like he always did. He was carrying that dagger on him, but he never had really like using it for some reason.

Blackbeard got up, and we both then charged towards our old comrade and attacked him, soon having to do the same thing with his new comrades, that didn't hesitate to attack us.

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Luffy's POV:

I was not outside the school building at and the deserted town. It was strange. The town was full of chatting and quite happy people at this time that were usually out buying food or other things.

"Vivi, why is it so strange here?" I asked her "There is almost no one in sight, and the only ones that are seem to be running away from the same place of the city" I said.

We were currently standing on top of an abandoned house that was quite tall, looking over the city. There was a strange atmosphere, and it smelled lightly like smoke and dust. It took me a moment to realise what was happening.

"There is a fight going on, and by the look of it, it must be a very big one" Vivi said.

I nodded. "We better get as soon as possible to our 'base'" I told her.

She nodded. "You're right" She just said.

I jumped forwards, falling down for several metres and surprisingly enough landing well and completely unhurt on top of another roof. Vivi did the same thing, and we soon were running across the roofs of the houses of the city directing ourselves to where our base was at, wanting to reach it safely as soon as possible and to find just what was going on.

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Marco's POV:

I walked towards pops, who was standing up with a determined look on his face. We were at the main room of the main base of the Whitebeard Gang, but I sensed that this wasn't going to last a lot.

"They're fighting, aren't they?" I heard pops say.

I nodded. "Yes, it seems that Blackbeard was going to attack someone and he ran into Ace before he managed to do it, who was searching for him" I quickly told the man, explaining the situation that the whole town surely knew about by now. "Ace is now not only fighting against Blackbeard but also against the rest of his gang" I said.

Whitebeard closed his eyes, as he thought. I just looked at him with a serious face, just like the rest of us did.

"We have to go out to help him. I sense that Blackbeard isn't precisely alone in this. Sengoku surely has to have planned something..." He said. "Let's go out!" He then shouted.

We cheered and started running out of the base, determined to help our comrade. I knew what beard had meant with that. Blackbeard had been having some suspicious activity with the government lately and I was willing to bet anything that the government was going to appear at any time now. Ace needed help, and I knew that he knew this. It was strange that Blackbeard had ended up fighting him though. The last news that we had had about him was that he had attacked and almost destroyed two rookie gangs. He hadn't seemed like wanting to go after Ace.

I frowned as I started getting into deeper thought. Yes, the government agents and army would surely come out, and when it did the town would be turned into a battlefield. I wondered what they wanted to achieve with this.

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Ace's POV: 

I had been lurking around the city for hours searching for that man, Blackbeard. At first the city was completely deserted, but there was a strange feeling in the air of danger. What could it possibly mean?

People were walking normally through the streets, but I could easily see that they were nervous. It was as if they knew that something bad was going to happen, which it surprisingly did. I walked through the streets, unconsciously going towards the area that was controlled by the Straw Hat gang, that rookie gang. I didn't enter it though, although I knew that I would surely be accepted in there. An image of Luffy flashed through my mind, and I couldn't help but smile. He just seemed to have this way of making you his friend... I wonder why I never really tried to be his friend before.

It starting directing myself towards where pops surely was, and it was then, about half an hour after arriving at the city, that I saw a familiar figure walking through the streets, going towards the area that I had almost entered a few minutes ago.

"Oh look, it is the famous commander of the second division of Whitebeard's gang" I heard Blackbeard say with a smirk. "I wonder what he could possibly want" He then said with a cruel smirk on his face.

"Blackbeard!" I shouted at the man, which caused him to just to laugh. "ou are going down!" I shouted at him.

"Oh, but I have no interest in you" He said "I'm looking for that new top notch rookie, he has been such a pain you see" He said.

I gritted my teeth. "You murdered one of your own comrades! I'm going to punish you for that! Prepare to die!" I shouted at him, just before I ran towards him and attacked him.


	13. Chapter 13

Here is chapter 13! I must apologise for not putting this up yesterday (when I intended to). I didn't manage to finish the chapter then. Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Blackbeard's POV:

The day had come. Today I would become famous and I'd force the government in to collaborating with me by capturing that new top notch rookie or killing him. I really didn't care if he was dead or alive. I had carefully planned this moment from even before I killed Thatch. It was my master plan, and I wouldn't let anyone stop me from completing it.

It hadn't taken been so hard to kill Thatch, even though he was a commander. That had only been bare days ago, and now it was the time to go on with the next stage of the plan. Soon enough a fight had broken out in the whole of the city. It wouldn't take too long for the government to send people, and I had until that time to do what I had to do. I had to reach that Straw Hat rookie. I didn't know who he really was, but this hadn't stopped me from tracking him and discovering at what moments when he was at his base or just walking through the city. I knew now that he was at the city, probably going towards his base. Now it was the time.

The new members of my band had immediately proceeded with the plan as soon as this was discovered, and they had immediately moved to the strategic places around the area controlled by the Straw Hat gang and inside which his base had to be located at. I had immediately directed myself to where that rookie would have to go through.

When I had started directing myself to this place the inhabitants of the city had been walking around nervously, surely noticing and feeling the danger that was about to start. By the time where I was almost at the area where the Straw Hats where and that the rookie was about to enter there was almost no one in sight, which was quite a strange thing and showed that the 'danger' had started, courtesy of my followers . However it was then when something unexpected happened, it was then when I accidentally saw the commander of the second division of Whitebeard's gang: 'Fire Fist Ace'.

I just chuckled and continued walking forwards, towards where the man that surely wanted to avenge his friend and make me pay for my action was at. I grinned and decided mentally that this would be just as good as capturing 'Straw Hat'. 'Fire Fist' was also very searched for, and on top of that I already had a vague idea of who he really was. Yes, forget that rookie. I was going to capture then man in front of me instead.

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Ace's POV:

I soon attacked the man with quite a lot of strength. I still hadn't grabbed my dagger, but I knew that I wouldn't hesitate to do so if he started using a weapon. He easily blocked my punch though, and we remained still, trying to overpower the other with no result. I quickly jumped back at the same time as he did and I proceeded to stare at him, trying to find the very best moment to attack him. He did the same thing, but had an evil grin on his face and a look of confidence. I then remembered what he had said. The new top notch rookie… he was surely referring to 'Straw Hat', or Luffy.

I felt myself gritting my teeth again. So he wanted to kill him or hand him to the government? We all knew what happened to the gang members that got caught by the government, and it wasn't precisely good. Most of them were either sent to Impel Down or executed, and some said that there were even worst things. Well, Rayleigh said that there were worse things, and I had the feeling that that man, the 'Dark King' just knew what he was saying.

This man… I felt a wave of protectiveness suddenly flood me as I thought of this man capturing Luffy. Sure, I hadn't known him for long, but he had seemed like he was a nice person and he had somehow made me think of him as a friend. I felt something else inside me, and suddenly the words of Sabo when he told me that he thought that Luffy was the person that I had danced with during the masquerade. I heard an inner voice inside me repeating that.

"No" I heard myself mutter, not realising that I was saying it aloud.

I shook my head discreetly and I just continued staring at Blackbeard and watching his every move very closely. I would not lose to the man. I would make sure that he harmed no one and that he received what he deserved. As I did this I continued thinking about that mystery person. I had only received that letter, and I had immediately replied that I would continue searching for him. However I had a feeling that told me that that person was closer than what I thought, and I couldn't get rid of this feeling.

"How could Luffy be that person?" I thought just before Blackbeard dashed at me and attacked me.

I defended myself and attacked back. Soon we were trapped in a game of attacking and defending ourselves from each other's attack, sometimes being hit and crashing into a building. I took no notice of just how destroyed the buildings around us were starting to be. Blackbeard was strong, a lot stronger than what I had expected or seen when he was part of Whitebeard's gang. Had he hidden his strength? If so why? Had he planned this all along?

Luffy… I knew since the first time that I had talked to him after the masquerade that there was something off. There was something that didn't fit. I suddenly remembered when both Sabo and I went back to the common room from the masquerade. Luffy was sleeping on one of the sofas, just like he usually did. I had paid no notice to him then, but there was something strange about the whole thing then. There was just something that didn't fit in the picture, and I couldn't see what it was.

"You're getting paranoid now Ace" I mentally told myself. "Yes, that must be it" I then repeated mentally to myself.

"But it cannot simply be that" I then thought again. "There is something that didn't fit in the whole picture, but what is it?" I then thought again.

I started paying attention again to my battle against Blackbeard. I lounged forwards and I punched him, hard. Things started going on as they had been before, and as the fight went on and on all of my attempts to dissolve and stop thinking about Luffy being the mystery man failed. I just couldn't get that suspicion out of my head. Sabo had looked so confident about it… he had even said something about his eyes. Yes, he had said that Luffy hadn't looked at us not even once after the ball, and I knew that this was a strange thing. One of the few things that I knew about the younger boy was that he never hid his eyes; he always looked straight into you. Everyone knew this, so why…?

I suddenly heard some footsteps coming towards me, and I knew who was coming even before I saw the person.

"Sabo" I thought, a grin suddenly appearing in my face.

I attacked again Blackbeard, forcing him to defend himself yet again and making him focus on me. Suddenly I saw the familiar blonde boy running towards Blackbeard in an aggressive position while clutching that pipe he always used between his hands. He was coming from one side, from a point where Blackbeard couldn't see him.

"You're going down" I whispered with hate to the man in front of me.

I saw him opening his mouth, ready to answer. However this answer never really came out of his mouth, as he was attacked by Sabo and sent into a wall with quite a lot of force. I had seen Sabo coming, but I still was surprised by his apparition.

"Sabo!" I said with evident surprise in my voice.

I saw the blonde male grin at this. "What are you doing here?" I then asked him with curiosity.

I hadn't expected him to come here. I hadn't even told him that I was fighting the man or asked for help, so why was he here? What had happened was all my fault, so why?

Sabo immediately grinned. "I couldn't exactly let you fight the man alone, could I?" He suddenly asked me.

I couldn't help but grin at this and I immediately got into a defensive stance, preparing myself for Blackbeard's next attack. I still hadn't used my dagger, and I still didn't feel like using it. I saw Sabo getting into a defensive stance too as Blackbeard started to get up from where he had been thrown at. I saw him do some sort of gesture, and suddenly some of the strongest new comrades that he had, which were quite a lot, were around us. They soon charged towards us, and we immediately started defending ourselves, not having expected more to appear.

"I didn't want to reach this point Fire Fist!" I heard Blackbeard shout at me, obviously angry.

He started attacking me with more strength. I still could keep up with him and defend myself from the other ones that were attacking me, but I knew that we would soon both be in trouble if things continued like this. Sabo was fine right now too, but I knew that he was thinking the very same thing.

We soon were fighting back against back, surrounded by all of them. This meant nothing though. They still hadn't managed to reach us, and I quickly told myself that they wouldn't manage to do this. Minutes passed, and I soon lost track of time. I wanted to talk to Sabo, but I didn't know what to say. Soon enough the thought of Luffy being 'Him' went through my head again, distracting me. Sabo seemed to immediately notice this.

"Concentrate Ace!" I heard Sabo shout at me "Stop thinking about him!" he then shouted back.

"I am not!" I immediately replied, feeling heat rise to my head.

He chuckled. "Sure you aren't" He then said with a grin on his face.

I smirked, wondering if he knew what I had been thinking about. That way in which he had just talked to me… yes, I bet that he had a fair idea of what I was thinking about. I could already imagine what he would say to me later. The more that I thought about it the more that I could see the similarities between who I was searching for and Luffy, but I was sure that these were just suspicions. I was sure that Luffy would become a very good friend. He just had this aura around him and that way of acting that made you be irremediable attracted to him and become his friend or that made you hate him. However I couldn't manage to imagine Luffy as 'Him'. I couldn't manage to do that, and yet this thought wasn't that foreign or strange deep inside.

The fight went on, and not much time passed before we were finally wounded for the first time. It started being only scratches, but both of us knew that this wasn't going to last too much. Yes, we had also wounded them badly, but they still hadn't been defeated. If nothing happened things could start to go quite badly for us. How hadn't we realised that Blackbeard was that strong?

An explosion was suddenly heard. We all looked briefly at the direction from which the explosion had come. At first we could see nothing, but soon the sound of distant fighting, which was getting closer and closer. It didn't take us long to figure out what was happening.

"It's Whitebeard's gang boss!" One of Blackbeard's comrades shouted.

"Damn old man!" Blackbeard shouted with fury.

"Don't you dare say a thing about him! Whitebeard is a better man that you will ever be!" I immediately shouted as I charged towards him suddenly, managing to attack him strongly and by surprise.

Blackbeard chuckled. "Don't make me laugh" he said as he attacked back.

I defended myself, and suddenly realised that it wasn't just Whitebeard and my comrades that were fighting. The army was also there, probably after hearing that so many wanted criminals and gang members and leaders were out in the city. I could hear them approaching. It didn't take long for government soldiers to appear around us, and they immediately started attacking us and Blackbeard and his comrades. This was bad, but it also had the unexpected advantage that it weakened the enemy. I grinned and continued fighting beside Sabo.

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Luffy's POV:

We had arrived to the base, following easily Usopp. The fighting sounds that came from outside had only increased, and by now both Vivi and I had a fair idea of what was happening. As far as we had been explained by Nami Blackbeard had started to fight with Fire Fist, but he had been coming towards us. The Whitebeard gang had ended up coming out due to reasons that we still didn't know at the same time as the government decided to order the army to act. It was a big mess out there, as he had ended up noticing.

Trafalgar Law had ended up coming to our base to tell us that it now was the time to act against Blackbeard and the government. That man was a dangerous threat, and we needed to defeat him and get rid of him as soon as possible. Doing this would also ensure that we would have good relations with the Whitebeard gang, which would be quite important. I knew that we already had good relations with Shank's gang and that I would probably manage to start having good relations with the Whitebeard gang soon thanks to Ace, but I didn't say this aloud.

Law had said that they would attack part of Blackbeard's gang, which was considerably big, and the government. The other strongest rookie gangs would do the same. We had decided to do the same thing from our territory and focus our attack on Blackbeard, which was curiously enough very close to Blackbeard's current location.

We were currently standing on the top of a building at the border of the territory that we controlled. There were no civilians in sight and I could see from a bit far away Blackbeard and some of his comrades chasing… someone while some of his other comrades defended and stopped the government soldiers from attacking their leader. I noticed Blackbeard and the other people start to chasing those two people through the roofs. They were getting closer, but I still couldn't recognise them. It wasn't until they were almost right in front of us that I recognised them. Ace and Sabo. They suddenly disappeared from my sight, and both Blackbeard, my comrades and his comrades and I stared with confusion at where both of them had been. I noticed blood on the roof.

I grinned and I placed my straw hat on my head, obscuring my face and my eyes that were gleaming with anticipation.

"Blackbeard!" I shouted "You'll now be defeated!" I shouted at him.


	14. Chapter 14

I'm very sorry for the enormous delay! Life has been constantly getting in the way and I could only manage to finish this chapter right now! I hope that you all enjoy it *avoids tomatoes thrown at her* Well, thanks you all for all of the wonderful support and reviews! I'm very glad that you like this story so much! :D *gives cookies*

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Blackbeard's POV:

I stared with confusion at where Fire Fist and that Sabo had been standing at moments ago. The had suddenly disappeared, how had they done that? Just what had they done to achieve that? I gritted my teeth, not realising the group of people that were standing on a nearby roof, looking at me and at my comrades.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist as I realised that I had to find where Fire Fist and his friend were if I wanted to continue with my plan. I needed to capture him or else I wouldn't be able to hand him over to the government so I could become a Sichibukai. I needed it!

"Blackbeard!" I suddenly heard someone shout from a nearby place "You'll now be defeated!" The same voice shouted again.

I looked at the direction from which the voice came and I immediately recognised my target. It was Straw Hat.

I grinned and laughed. "Perfect" I said with an evil tone of voice. "You will never manage to do that, Straw Hat!" I then said again as I got into a fighting position.

He had a determined look in his eyes that was topped by one of rage. If he had been standing there he had surely seen Fire Fist and his companion. Was he angry because of that? I looked down and saw the slightly small pool of blood that had formed. Part of it was mine and the other part from Fire Fist. I had been weakened by the fight with Fire Fist, but this still posed no threat to my plan. I chuckled. It would have been better if I had managed to get my hands on Fire Fist now that he was so weakened by our attack, but this was still good.

"Attack them!" I shouted to my men.

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Luffy's POV:

I looked at Blackbeard as he chuckled and laughed. Just what was his plan? Law had told us that he was probably going after us, as one of the top rookie bands, however he had obviously been fighting with Ace and Sabo. Why was this? And speaking of them, where were they?

"Attack them!" I heard Blackbeard shout with all of his strength and with an undertone of sadism.

All of his men charged forwards, and I chuckled as they did this. We would defeat them. I nodded and charged forwards, towards Blackbeard. We all knew what to do now. It wouldn't take Law long to make his appearance and I knew that the other rookie bands would also attack the rest of the government and enemies that were around. We were going to succeed.

A grin had formed in my face by the time that I threw my first punch towards Blackbeard. He blocked it, but that didn't stop me from forcing him to take several steps backwards as I overpowered him. It was quite obvious that he had been weakened by his fight with Ace.

I looked at my comrades as they fought with the other main members of Blackbeard's gang. They all had fierce looks on their faces as they fought. I heard a dull sound of shouting and sudden fighting around us, which surely belonged to some of the government soldiers and the members of the other 'rookie' gangs. In the distance I recognised that strange Hawkings fighting against an official. I ignored the sounds around me as I continued fighting with Blackbeard.

"You think that you can defeat us?" I suddenly heard Blackbeard shout as he blocked another punch and attacked me.

"Yes" I simply said with a fierce determination in my voice.

No more words were exchanged as we fought each other. We were only focused on our battle with the other and in nothing else. Not even in getting information on the opponent. I felt my straw hat falling down and resting on my back, like it usually did most of the time. I took no notice of this and also didn't try to cover y face again. It surely wasn't important. I took a step forwards and punched Blackbeard again, this time managing to hit him and sending him a few metres back, crushing into a chimney that was instantly destroyed. I grinned at this and looked at him as he got up.

"You're stronger than what I thought" He said with hate as he looked at me.

I just chuckled at this and quickly got into a defensive stance, waiting for him to attack again. He did this quite quickly, and soon we both had returned to the old rhythm of fighting. Law then made his entrance, which made more men from Blackbeard fall. Around them the government's army was being defeated. We were winning the battle. Everything was perfect.

I saw him suddenly got a sword out of what seemed to be nowhere. I hadn't seen that coming. He then proceeded to attack me quite strongly, hitting me several times with the sword and making me some light wounds. He was already weakened too by my attacks and by his previous battle, and he was quite visibly nervous and angry. Things weren't going like he expected. His comrades were being defeated and the government was getting closer and closer to him, and this was bad for all of us.

I suddenly threw myself forwards carelessly, deciding to end it all here and right now. I attacked Blackbeard with an enormous amount of strength that immediately sent him crashing through several blocks of buildings. I grinned at this, not noticing the sword that now was going right through me and that I had received form Blackbeard in my careless attack. I saw Blackbeard running away, probably swearing vengeance, and the rest of the government's army retiring too. In the distance I could recognise the massive figure of Whitebeard, but I didn't pay any attention to it. My comrades had defeated too their enemies. I smiled, noticing my vision starting to black out. I looked down as I felt a sharp pain in my stomach area. I then saw the sword that was going right through me. I made a gesture to take it off me, but didn't manage to complete it. I felt myself finally blacking out and finally losing conscience. I fell to the floor, and the last thing that I felt were two strong arms stopping me from making contact with the flat and cold stones that composed the 'roof'. Who could have...?

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Ace's POV:

I ran as fast as I could forwards, besides Sabo. We had to get out of here before they did any more damage to us and find an ally that would help us fight them. It was essential if we wanted to defeat him without anything happening to us. He had been stronger than what we thought, and he had clearly planned this all along.

We started running on top of the roofs. There were many people fighting in the streets. Some of them I recognised as my fellow comrades from Whitebeard's band, others were part of Blackbeard's band and part of the government. I grinned, happy, as I noticed how the comrades of Blackbeard were, in fact, being defeated by us. However we still had to defeat their leader and make him pay for what he had done. He wouldn't escape. Strangely enough there were less and less people on this part of the town as we advanced though.

I ran and ran, not noticing the wounds that I had and ignoring the pain that they produced. Now it wasn't the time to care for this. I suddenly saw ahead of me a figure that was standing on top of another roof, besides several others. I wasn't able to recognise who they were until I was very close to them, and when I managed to do this I suddenly found myself falling through the gap that was left between the two buildings and roofs. I immediately fell down onto a small and dirty street, falling on top of a pile of garbage that thankfully enough hadn't been there a lot of time. Sabo, funnily enough, fell right beside me.

I slowly got up, not really understanding how this could have happened. I brushed a banana skin off my trousers and stood up at the middle of the street, looking at Sabo as he did the same thing as I had. I looked up, not managing to see what was happening on the roof of the building that we had been running through before.

"Did you see him?" Sabo suddenly said.

"Yes" I simply said as I continued looking above.

"It was Luffy…" Sabo said "What was he doing there? Does he plan in fighting Blackbeard?" He then asked.

I opened my mouth, I was about to answer when something was heard from above.

"Blackbeard!" Luffy shouted "You'll now be defeated!" he then added with confidence.

I was shocked by this. "He really plans to fight him" I said with a low tone of voice to Sabo.

He nodded. "I hope that he is okay. Even though we didn't know him much he ended up becoming in such a short time a friend, at least to me. Almost like a little brother" He said.

I couldn't help but to nod at this. "Yes" I just said, now looking at Sabo.

The only sounds that could be heard from above now were the ones of fighting. It seemed like quite an amount of people were fighting up there. I suddenly felt a pang of worry in my heart, and I started running towards a place where we could go up there and help with the fight.

"Ace! Where are you going?" I heard Sabo ask as he started following me as best as he could.

"We need to go up there and help!" I immediately shouted back at him.

I almost felt Sabo grinning, and I couldn't help but wonder just what exactly had caused him to grin like that. I focused my attention forwards. There were several soldiers fighting some people that I didn't know on the streets, and that probably where band members. I didn't stop to look at them though, and they didn't make any movements that made it seem like they wanted to fight me. I pulled my trademark hat so it covered more of my face, I didn't want to be recognised right now, and I continued running through the streets, trying to find one of the many ladders that were located at the sides of the buildings and that allowed all of us to climb up to the roofs.

I heard several shouts, and noticed that the gang of one of the "eleven supernovas" was fighting quite a number of band members of Blackbeard's new band. I thought about helping them, but I suddenly remembered what I wanted to go, and instead I just continued running towards the ladder.

I climbed it, Sabo doing this too right after I had started doing this, and proceeded to look around me once I was on top of the roof of the house.

"There they are!" I heard Sabo shout right beside me, pointing at the direction where quite a number of people where located, right on the border of the territory of the Straw Hats.

We both started running towards there, looking at all of the people that we saw with increasing caution. There were more than before, and it seemed like Blackbeard and his men were losing. The fight, however, was still going on. Soon we were just a few metres away from where Luffy was fighting Blackbeard. He was visibly wounded, but he still continued going on.

Blackbeard had a sword on his hands, and he was using mercilessly this advantage. Luffy, however, continued attacking him over and over again, not paying attention to the multiple wounds that he was receiving. He suddenly charged forwards with a fierce determination in his eyes. He punched Blackbeard quite hard, sending him crashing into several buildings far away and thus defeating him. It was then when I noticed what Blackbeard had managed to do with him. He had pierced him with his sword. Blood was falling on the cold stones of the roofs.

"Luffy!" I shouted, not really catching anyone's attention, as I started running towards the boy, that had started to fall down.

I managed to catch him just before he hit the cold floor of the roofs. He was unconscious now. I sensed everyone's eyes on us. I looked beside me and saw Sabo right beside me with a worried face.


	15. Chapter 15

Well, here is the new chapter! Sorry for how long this took! I have been again very busy with school work, and the fact that I have had to make a start on two courseworks that I have to complete this year doesn't help at all. Well, I will just say that if I had to name this chapter anything I would name it "Discovery" ;D Thank you for all of the extremely wonderful reviews that you all left! I'm really glad that you liked this story! Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I slowly opened my eyes, lifting my seemingly heavy eyelids as best as I could. What had happened? Where was I? I closed my eyes again, welcoming the darkness and the sleep that I had been surrounded by for who knows how much time. I suddenly realised where I was. I was in the medical wing of our base. But why was I there? I just remembered a lot of fighting, Blackbeard and then…

I almost jumped out of the clean and white bed as I remembered. Someone had caught me before I fell completely unconscious! But who had it been?

"You're awake!" I suddenly heard someone say beside me.

I was surprised by this, and I slowly turned around to look at the person who had just talked, and I was surprised to see Sabo there. He was dressed in quite a strange way, and he seemed to be a bit tired. He was slightly wounded too.

"Sabo?" I said slowly, with curiosity in my voice.

He just grinned and nodded. "You know, we were quite worried about you, and your comrades too" He said.

I was slightly surprised by this, but I couldn't help but smile at this. Why had both of them cared? I had only started talking to them days ago, and it just was to conceal who I was in the masquerade. I looked out of the window, and looked at the sun that was high on the sky. It was then when I remembered. Today I was supposed to go to the school. I had to conceal my identity! I couldn't afford this, especially when I had no valid excuse and I wasn't precisely liked by the teachers and especially by the head. Sabo looked at me with a face that almost told that he and Ace already had that in mind. Speaking of which, where was Ace? If Sabo was here it would be the most normal thing.

Sabo then sat on the bed, right beside me. "He was the one that caught you in the last moment, you know? He was worried, and I know that he will never admit that he was.

I turned my eyes away from Sabo and felt heat rush to my face. I was blushing. Sabo looked at me and then laughed quite hard and loud.

"I already suspected something, but it was true!" He said in between laughs "You are in love with Ace!" He then added with a cheeky grin on his face.

This only caused me to look away and blush deeper. "Just tell me where he is right now please" I said with a low tone of voice.

"Of course" Sabo said. "He went to the school before us to cover us and told the teachers that we weren't feeling good today" He explained.

"What time is it right now?" I then asked again. The sun was already high in the sky, and I didn't know what time it could be exactly.

"It is almost four pm. School has already ended" Sabo said.

I nodded and wished that no one had suspected anything. I didn't know what I would do if this happened. I slowly got up, suddenly seeing and feeling the wounds that I had received in the fight.

"How much time has passed?" I then asked, wondering just how much time I had been sleeping.

"Not much, just a few hours" Sabo soon replied. "Shouldn't you rest a bit more?" He then asked me as he saw me walking towards the door of the room.

"I want to be back at the school as soon as possible. I don't want to be suspected or caught by someone" I said.

Sabo nodded. "Just be careful or that doctor of yours will be mad" He said with another grin on his face as he got up and walked towards the door with me.

I opened the door of the room and went out of it. I could hear voices coming from another part of our headquarters, but I didn't recognise who it was from, even though it was familiar. I knew that all of my comrades were there, but who was the other person? We slowly made our way towards the main entrance. I already had all of my clothes on me. I was ready to go now.

"Luffy! Wait a moment! Rayleigh wants to talk to you about something important!" I suddenly heard Nami say behind me as she went out of the room where they all seemed to be at.

"I will talk to him later! I must head back to the school now!" I shouted as I opened the door that led to the outside, in quite a hidden way of course.

"Wait! He explained it to us! Smoker now knows-" She shouted. I didn't get to hear all of what she said, as I had already left the room with Sabo before she had finished saying that.

I wondered for a bit just what she had wanted to say, but I soon forgot. I would ask later, it couldn't be that important. Right now I had to get back to the school as soon as possible.

We both started running through the streets. They were quite full of people, but there were hardly any soldiers in the streets, which was unusual. Usually there was someone. There was no one from the government that was patrolling the streets. It was strange, but I didn't stop to think about it too much and instead I focused on what was in front of me.

It didn't take us long to reach one of the closest secret entrances, but we found out that it was heavily guarded by soldiers.

"We'll have to enter through another one" I heard Sabo say with an angry voice.

I just nodded and followed him to the secret entrance that was closest to our new position. The town was still mostly unprotected and there was barely any soldier presence in it. It didn't take us long to reach that other entrance, but we soon found to our dismay that it was too heavily guarded. We did the same thing again, and a bit less than an hour had passed when we discovered that all of the secret entrances to the school were guarded. It was as if they already knew that we were going to try and enter, but this wasn't possible, right? There was no way that they could expect a thing like that occurring. We were currently hiding from them behind a corner of a street that was very close to the entrance.

"They are all guarded. It is impossible to enter without them suspecting us" Sabo said as he sat down on top of a rock that was lying on top of the floor.

I just nodded and sat down beside him, not really knowing what to say.

"And they will probably stay there all day long. What bad luck" Sabo then said again.

We remained in complete silence for several moments, until I suddenly had a mad idea.

"We could distract them!" I shouted far too loud than what was good in our current situation.

Sabo's eyes widened. "Yes! It is a wonderful idea!" He said, suddenly turning around to look at me. "Which one of us should do it though?" He then asked.

I looked at him, not knowing again what to answer. I hadn't thought about that.

"We both have to get into the building, so it would be quite tricky to do it" Sabo then said again, realising the same thing that I had.

"Do you really think so?" A voice suddenly said behind us.

I turned around, surprised. Who was that person? I soon found myself staring at the strange blonde man that had just spoken

"Marco!" I heard Sabo said with happiness in his voice.

It was only then when I finally recognised him. The strange guy with the pineapple blonde hair was Marco, the commander of the first division of Whitebeard's gang. What was he doing here?

"I thought that you might need some help to get back into the building Sabo and… Luffy" He said.

I continued staring at the man, not paying attention to whatever that he was saying. He was in a good physical shape, but several bandages could be clearly seen on his chest. He didn't seem to have bad wounds though, and I was sure that the one that I had was far worse than the ones that he had. It was only then when I felt for the first time the magnitude of the wound that I had received yesterday night. Yes, it had cured a bit, but I could easily tell that it was still quite fresh and that I would have to be careful if I didn't want to get Chopper shouting at me for being reckless.

"It's done then!" I Sabo suddenly said then, taking me out of my thoughts. "Thank you for helping us Marco!" He then added, with a grin on his face.

The blonde man just nodded with a similar smile.

"It is the least that I can do for you, Sabo" he said "Besides, pops took an interest on you yesterday, Straw Hat" he then added "You helped us defeat Blackbeard" He then added.

I just grinned.

"I will get going now. Be prepared" The blonde man said with that smile on his face again.

"Okay" Sabo said.

Marco then took several steps forwards, and taunted the soldiers with several insults. They immediately recognised him and ran towards him to try and capture him. Marco just ran away, effectively leaving the entrance deserted and ready for us to use. As soon as the guards were gone we ran towards it, quickly opened it and entered the castle.

We started walking through the dark corridors that led into the castle. This entrance surely led to the dungeons of the castle, which was good, since there barely was anyone there.

"There is the exit of this passage" I muttered as soon as a bright light was seen at the other end of the passage that we were going through.

We soon were in one of the numerous corridors of the dungeons of the castle that had been used for so many dark things in the past. We started walking through them, visibly more relaxed. There was no one in sight, but I had a strange feeling in my chest, and I felt that Sabo had it too.

"I think there are more of them here, and I think that they are searching for us, or for you at least" Sabo said, looking around in a slightly paranoid way.

"Yes" I just said, feeling the same thing.

"We better be careful then" He then said. "We have to reach a safe place as soon as possible" He then said.

"Maybe my room could be good?" I suggested with hope in my voice. I didn't want to end up in an unknown place, and even less in Sabo's or Ace's room. That would be too strange.

"That is so obvious..." Sabo started saying with a harsh voice, but suddenly stopping in the middle of the sentence. "It is so obvious that it is perfect! They will never guess that we are here!" Sabo finished saying.

I just grinned and laughed lightly, which made Sabo turn around to face me with a quick movement and tell me to shut up.

We continued walking through all of the corridors towards where our room would be at. Today's classes had already ended, but there were very few people, almost no one, in the corridors, even in the main ones. What was going on here? Minutes passed quickly, and before we knew we were almost at my room. We had to go through one of the main and most used corridors though, and I was sure that there soldiers walking around here, very close. We had already seen a few, but they hadn't noticed us, luckily. We went to the main corridor and started walking through it. Suddenly two female students started walking through it too, quite close to us, and it didn't take much for them to recognise me and to shout.

"There he is, there he is!" They shouted with fear in their voices.

We looked at them with horror. Sabo ran towards them. Everything had gone wrong.

"Shut up!" He shouted with anger in his voice.

Less than five seconds had passed until we heard the sound of many soldiers running towards our current position.

"We must get out of here!" Sabo then shouted, as he started running in one direction.

I ran behind it, but deep inside we both knew that there was no way that we would be able to avoid fighting the guards. Our only hope was in defeating them and managing to fight them. That moment came before we expected.

"We have you at last, Straw Hat Luffy! Or should we say Monkey D. Luffy!" One of them shouted, just to add later a "But who is he?" as he looked at Sabo.

We both turned around and glared at him and at the other soldiers.

"You'll never get us" I said daringly "Fight if you dare to!" I then shouted.

They immediately started attacking us and we did the same thing. The two female students were now nowhere in sight. One by one the guards started falling to the ground. I was fighting against one of the last ones when I saw a figure come towards us from one of the corners. It was Ace!

I stared at him for a while, forgetting about my opponent and only remembering the fight when it was too late. I felt a strong punch hit me in the stomach, which made me be thrown backwards into a wall. It wouldn't have affected me too much normally, but this time I knew for sure that it had caused my wound to be reopened. I felt blood rushing out, and as I felt consciousness seeping out of me for a second time in less than a day I saw the two figures that I knew so well defeat the last soldiers and run to me. I smiled as I lost my consciousness and everything became black.

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Ace's POV:

I looked at the unconscious body of the boy that I had met not too long ago and that had yet become so important to me. Sabo's words were still running through my mind, but I didn't know what to think. Not anymore. I had lost that a while ago. His wound had reopened, and that wasn't good. However we had been lucky, once again, and it had proved to not be deadly and we had managed to bandage him up again and to stop him from losing blood. He was now lying on top of his bed, where we had decided to hide at. It was such an obvious place for us to be in and yet so perfect. I had learnt when I had come back to the school that the government and Smoker had learnt that Luffy was Straw Hat during the fight yesterday and that they were looking for him really hard. However, I hadn't had any single way of going out to tell Sabo and Luffy to be careful and to not come back. The exits were all heavily guarded and the soldiers didn't allow anyone to leave the building. I looked at Luffy as he lied there, completely unconscious, deep in thoughts.

"We should probably change his bandages now to more clean ones" I suddenly heard Sabo say with a thoughtful voice.

My eyes focused on the place where Luffy's wound was at.

"Yes" I said quite slowly.

I got up from the place where I had been sitting at, quite near to the bed that Luffy used. It was the first and probably the only time that I would be in his room, and I had been amazed by the amount of disorganisation that was in the room.

"Where are the bandages?" I asked Sabo, looking around and failing to spot the ones that we had used earlier.

"The ones that we just used are finished. I guess that he will have some in one of those drawers that he has.

I nodded and started opening the numerous drawers that were in the furniture of the room. At first I was unsuccessful, but I soon found them.

"Here they are" I said as soon as I spotted them in one of the drawers.

I soon got hold of them and took them out of the drawer, but it was only then when I noticed what seemed to be a mask in the drawer. It was a quite familiar one. It was the one that the person that I had danced with in that masquerade that had been celebrated days ago had worn that night. It was the one that I had _dreamt_ about several times.

I turned around and looked at Sabo with a shocked expression, but I soon forgot about him. The memories of that night started to go through my mind over and over again, and every time that I replayed them I realised just how obvious it had been and how right Sabo had been about everything. I walked towards Luffy, determined to see if it had really been him and still with a bit of denial in me. Once I was right beside him I leant over him. He was still fast asleep. I placed the mask over his face, and it was only then when I was completely sure that Luffy was the one that I had fallen in love with in that masquerade, that Luffy was the one that I had been searching for so desperately for and that Luffy was the one that I had danced with.

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Luffy's POV:

I slowly became awake and more aware of my surroundings. I knew that I was lying on top of something soft and I felt just a light pain in my body. I suddenly remembered what had happened. How much time had passed since then?

I opened my eyes suddenly, and the first thing that I saw was Ace staring at me quite close with a shocked expression on his face. I couldn't help but to blush a little. Why was he staring at me? I knew that I was in my room, and in a corner Sabo was looking at Ace and I with a grin on his face. I looked back at Ace, not knowing for a moment what was going on. Realisation suddenly hit me when I felt something on my face. It was my mask, the mask that I had used in the masquerade. Ace was looking at me. Ace was looking at me wearing the mask. He had probably found it inside my room and placed on me. Realisation hit me a second time. Ace knew.


	16. Chapter 16

Here is chapter 16! I hope that you enjoy it! I really had a hard time writing this chapter and deciding especially what would happen at the end of it. I know how I'll end this fanfic, but I really have no idea about how to get there. A million thanks to all of those that faved this story and added it to alerts and reviewed! (and to those that added me to their fav authors list and to author alert)! You guys are awesome! :D I'm sorry that this chapter isn't as long as some others are, but I really wanted to leave the rest of what would happen for next chapter =3 Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I continued staring at Ace for quite a while. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I just wanted to turn time back or to disappear from the room. I knew that I was blushing now, but the mask was hiding this blush for Ace. I was almost trembling. I didn't know if I felt bad or good about all of this, and this just added to the confusion that I was feeling. Ace was still staring at me from quite close, and I couldn't help but feel nervous about all of this. He wasn't saying a word, and by now even Sabo was quite now, staring at both of us with a mischievous glint in his eyes. I could tell that he had been waiting for this to happen for quite long, and yet he surely hadn't told Ace the… secret.

"So it was you all along" Ace suddenly said.

I opened my mouth to answer, but all the words that I had thought of suddenly disappeared from my mind, leaving me opening and closing my mouth like a fish in quite a comical manner. Hell, I could feel my _lip_trembling out of pure nervousness. I tried to calm myself and to convince myself that I could still convince Ace otherwise; that I wasn't the one that had danced with him, even though I knew that all hope of that kind was lost now. Ace wasn't an idiot, and neither was I (even though it seemed otherwise quite an amount of time). I gulped quite noisily, and managed to calm myself enough to speak and to carry out my suicidal and ridiculous 'plan', if it could even be called that.

"I… I am not-" I started saying, not managing to continue talking right after starting my phrase.

Ace groaned with annoyance. "Oh, shut up" He said, suddenly closing the distance that separated our lips.

I felt my heart skipping a beat, and I felt that I couldn't react at all. I just stared at Ace with that look that I had stared at him with when he had done that during the masquerade.

"Yes, it is definitely you" Ace said with a grin on his face, not shocked at all or disgusted that it was me who he had danced with.

I gulped again, trying to regain my composure. It couldn't be like this! Ace couldn't… for god's sake, smile like that after kissing _me_ and after learning who I was. He couldn't! It wasn't right! We were complete opposites!

"Why do you smile like that?" I suddenly asked quite seriously, expressing my inner turmoil. I had definitely enjoyed that, but…

Ace was immediately shocked by this, as was Sabo. "What do you mean?" He then asked, wondering what I meant exactly by that and with a twinge of worry in his eyes.

What the hell, couldn't he catch that this wasn't right? He really couldn't get that I shouldn't be able to be with him like this? Did he really not catch this simple fact? It was obvious!

"Why are you happy?" I then questioned again, forgetting everything that had passed yesterday and that the government now knew who I was. I could only think about what had happened several days ago and about the young man right in front of me.

Ace smiled in a strange way. "Why shouldn't I?" He asked back.

I was surprised by this. I hadn't expected this response. So he really couldn't understand that this wasn't right due to who I was? I opened my mouth to say something again, but this time I was interrupted by Sabo.

"Luffy, I know what you are thinking. I've known for quite a while, but… forget about it. It is nonsense" He said "It is not true" He then finished saying.

I turned around to face him in quite a sudden way. "It isn't like that!" I shouted, quite nervous. The nature of the situation was getting to me and making me quite nervous, and it didn't seem like I could avoid this.

Ace was the next one to speak. "You already knew?" he said, surprised. "Sabo, you could have told me!" He then added, with the same tone of voice as before.

Sabo turned around to face him with a sarcastic and mocking grin on his face. "As if I didn't leave you enough hints about the whole deal" He said.

Ace scoffed. "But you cold have told me!" He repeated.

Sabo just laughed. "You know I'm right, Ace. You know that I'm right" He said with an amused expression.

Ace didn't say anything else, and just continued staring at Sabo for quite a while. I didn't dare to say anything either. I just started staring at the face of the one that I had loved for such a long time and that had seemed so… happy. Ace and Sabo shared looks for quite a while then. It almost seemed as if they were communicating silently. Ace suddenly turned around and looked back at me, quite close to my face, which caused me to blush lightly.

"I understand now" he then said, looking at me straight into the eye.

"But-" I started saying, just to be interrupted again.

"You're an idiot you know?" Ace just said, with a light smile on his face. "To think that... I expected more from you, Luffy" He then added. "I really do not care about anything of that. You're Luffy, that that is what matters" He then added.

"But it does!" I said again.

"Shut up" Ace said before closing the distance between our lips.

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Smoker's POV:

I looked at the soldier that had just entered my office, to tell me the news that I had already heard about in my own.

"Sir!" He said in a very formal way.

"Yes?" I asked with a bored and monotone voice.

"Straw Hat Luffy is inside the building now!" He said.

I grinned lightly at this comment. It was a wonder how I hadn't been able to recognise him earlier. It had only been when I had seen 'Straw Hat' without his hat during that fight that I had finally recognised him. I gave him credit for that. None had managed to fool me for such a long time before.

"Do you know where he could be right now?" I asked then with that serious and monotone voice.

The man nodded. "Yes sir, we know of several places where he could be right now!" He said with a satisfied tone of voice.

"Great" I just said as I stood up. "Straw Hat Luffy will be going down now and be made to pay for his crimes" I said with a satisfied tone of voice. "He won't manage to escape from us any longer" I then added.

"What is the plan sir?" The soldier asked.

I remained silent for a few moments "I want you to take several of your men towards all of the places where Straw Hat can be right now that includes his room" I said, pausing for a bit "Get into the usual positions and check every single bit of those places. He won't manage to escape from us" I said.

"I will do it immediately sir!" The soldier just answered, before he left the room.

I remained there for a few minutes, thinking about what would now happen in a few minutes. I would capture him, and there was no way that this would be changed.

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Sabo's POV:

I had passed quite a hard time trying to contain my laugher. It was a very comical situation, no matter what Ace and Luffy thought. Hell, it was even close to ridiculous. Luffy had tried to 'convince' Ace that his happiness when finding that Luffy was the one that he had danced with wasn't 'right', and had failer miserably. Ace had been completely unable to understand what Luffy had wanted to say and instead had ended up kissing him, which had caused _Luffy_ to blush, of all people.

I looked over at Luffy, who was now staring continuously at the window. The mask that he had worn that night now laid abandoned on the cold floor of the room, completely forgotten. It was already starting to turn dark, and I had a strange feeling in my chest. I had realised that 'they' knew that Luffy was Straw Hat, and even if I had only known the boy for a few days I had also realised that I didn't want him to be taken to the fearsome prison that was Impel Down, where several people that I knew had already been taken to. I was almost sure that they still didn't know that Ace and I were members, and quite important ones, of Whitebeard's crew, and yet this didn't calm me a single bit.

I sighed one time, trying to get my thoughts in order. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room and it was already starting to annoy me. Luffy was just staring out of the window, thinking in who knows what, and Ace was staring at the floor, not really looking up.

"This is stupid" I suddenly said, causing both of them to look at me with no interest at all in their faces.

They stared at me for quite a while, neither of them really expressing or saying the question that I knew that they were both thinking in that very moment.

"Luffy, you love Ace and you know it." I said very seriously "Ace, the same is applied to you. I know that you feel the same way. Why then are you both behaving like five year olds?" I then finished saying.

They then stared at me for quite a while, both with a light blush on their faces and completely quiet. I sighed again and looked at the door that led into the room for a brief moment before I started speaking again.

"However that isn't what we should be concentrating on right now. 'They' know that Luffy is 'Straw Hat' now, and I have no doubt in my mind that Smoker plans to come barging in very soon to capture you, Luffy" I said. "We have to figure a way to get out of here safely" I then said again.

Luffy nodded, agreeing with me, but didn't say anything at all. Instead, it was Ace the one who spoke next.

"We can't simply go out now and use the secret entrances that we have used so much now. There are too many guards for us to achieve something like that" He said with a serious tone of voice.

"Then we'll have to distract them in some way" Luffy suddenly said.

I grinned as a mad idea suddenly popped into my mind. "Come closer, I have an idea of how to get out of here" I said.

Luffy and Ace got closer to where I was, and as soon as they were close enough I started explaining to them my plan to get out of the room.

Several minutes passed, and I couldn't help but grin when I thought about what would happen now. Suddenly, several knocks were heard on the door.

"Open! We know that you are in there Straw hat!" Two voices said.

Luffy remained quiet for a bit of time, looked at me and walked towards the door when he saw me nodding. It was time to put in practice the plan.


	17. Chapter 17

Here it is! Chapter 17 is finally here, which is also funnily enough the last chapter of this story (but fear not, there will be an epilogue done of this quite soon, most probably). I hope that you enjoy this! A million thanks to all of the people that have supported this story! :D *gives cookies*

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of its characters, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I looked back at Sabo and saw him nodding, telling me without any words that everything would be okay. I walked towards the door and opened it quite slowly, and since the door opened inwards I made sure that as I did this the door hid me from the view of the two guards. They immediately stepped into the room, just to see Sabo and Ace right in front of them with a not so friendly face.

"Where is Straw Hat?" One of the guards asked with a demanding tone of voice.

Sabo smirked "Right behind you" He answered.

The guard looked confused for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something, however he didn't manage to do this, and instead he was met with Sabo's and Ace's fists on his face, throwing him backwards and right into one of his other two companions. I quickly shut the door, to stop the one that was still on his feet to escape. It was also then when he noticed me.

"What is this? Smoker will hear about this! You will not manage toe escape, traitors!" He shouted nervously as he looked at the three of us.

Ace smirked slightly cruelly this time. "I don't think so" He said, showing the guard his canines.

The man shivered, and soon he was lying unconscious besides his two companions.

"Okay, it's time to continue with the next part of the plan" Sabo then said, with a grin on his face.

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Smoker's POV:

Half an hour had passed since I had sent those two soldiers to Straw Hat Luffy's room to capture him there. Half an hour had passed! Half an hour without any kind of news from them had passed! Half an hour! Just what the hell had happened to them!

"Where are they?" I shouted at the other soldiers that were inside the room quite angrily, causing them to visibly finch.

"W-we don't know sir" One replied with a terrified voice.

I glared at him. "You! Go to that place and tell me what happened immediately!" I shouted at him as I turned around to look at the others. "All of you! I want you to order the others to go and patrol better now, it is very probably that Straw Hat is going to try and get away from here now! You have to guard the doors and stop him when he tries to do this!" I shouted at them.

"Yes sir!" The soldiers said right before they left the room, fearing what might happen to them if they failed to stop Straw Hat.

I sat down on my chair for several seconds, wondering just how the kid could have gone unnoticed to me for such a long time until _that_ had happened at the town. I hadn't been able to discover who he was until I had seen him during the fight, and I couldn't help but wonder just how that kid, who wasn't precisely the most intelligent kid at the school, had managed to pass unnoticed to me, one of the most known and good officials of the government and that had captured countless of criminals like him.

I groaned, annoyed. I knew that those men didn't stand a chance against that Straw Hat. He was stronger than them and would unavoidably defeat them, no matter how many people were against him, and if we added to this the high possibility that Straw Hat was being helped by someone…

"It seems that only I will be able to do the job" I said with frustration as I stood up and headed towards the door.

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Luffy's POV:

I looked at the two people that I had barely know days ago, now dressed up with the uniform that those three men, guards or soldiers had been wearing. We were running through the corridors of the massive school, heading to the closest 'secret' exit. I was nervous, and there was no way that I could possibly deny that. I felt confused, and unable to think. That… _kiss_… had completely destroyed my reasoning ability, and yet it seemed like it hadn't affected Ace at all. He was just looking forwards, not noticing me at all, or maybe that was just what he wanted me to think. Who knew what was going around his head right now. It was impossible to know, especially for me right now. I simply couldn't think properly right now.

"We are almost there" I heard Sabo say, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had formed around us.

I nodded, and just continued running. We hadn't seen any soldiers around the corridors yet, and I couldn't help but wonder why this was. Had they found out about us trying to leave now? No, it maybe was another thing… but what could it be then?

"There are no guards" Ace stated as he just looked at the corridor ahead.

"We'll have to be careful then, it is possible that they will try to attack us" Sabo just said before allowing the uncomfortable silence to return.

We continued running for barely over a minute, but it seemed like it was an eternity. I was completely bottled up in my thoughts, unable to notice anything else that wasn't related to what I was thinking at the moment, and that didn't even happen all the time.

"Stop" Sabo said, suddenly breaking my thoughts. "There are many guards there, _many_ guards" He then finished saying, as he pointed to where the exit was at.

Both Ace and I looked towards where he was pointing at and immediately realised that it wouldn't be as easy as we had thought at first to leave this place. Fighting seemed unavoidable, and it wouldn't be easy or quick to defeat them.

"What should we do now, Ace?" Sabo asked the other male, who still hadn't seemingly looked at me.

"We are still wearing the uniforms, aren't we?" I said, as I looked at the other two males. "We could try to go through" I then finished saying.

"Won't they recognise you though? Your straw hat is even hanging on your back, they will surely recognise you"

I remained quiet, not really knowing what to say. However Ace was the one to speak next.

"It isn't like we can do anything else though" He said "We should try that" He then finished saying with a serious expression.

Sabo nodded. "Very well, that is true" He said "We better try that then" He then finished saying "We have to act normally though, or we will be discovered" He then said.

I nodded, understanding fully what this meant.

"Well, let's go" He said.

Several seconds passed before we started walking towards the soldiers. Sabo was first, I was second and Ace was the last one. The soldiers didn't look strangely at us, and they even looked as if they were going to let us go outside using the entrance after Sabo told them that we had orders to patrol around the town. Hell, they didn't look at me for too long even though my straw hat was quite visible. It all looked as if it was going to be perfect, however when we were almost outside I heard a shout coming from where we had come from, and I knew very well who it was.

"It's Straw Hat! Don't let him escape!" Smoker shouted with extreme anger.

"He caught us!" Sabo shouted, surprised, as he turned around and looked at all of soldiers that now were running towards us. "I told you that this was a bad idea!" He then shouted, as he punched one quite hard.

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Smoker's POV:

I smirked as I spotted Monkey D. Luffy walking towards the exit, dressed up with a soldier's uniform. His famous straw hat was visible, but I had to admit that he looked like a valid soldier. If it wasn't because I was so used to the kid and knew how he looked like I could have not spotted him. He was besides two other people, that I immediately recognised as being those two boys, Ace and Sabo, that were three years older than him. I was confused for a moment. They surely knew what they were doing and they should know by now who Monkey D. Luffy really was, why were they accompanying him dressed up as soldiers too? Had they become his accomplices?

"It's Straw Hat! Don't let him escape!" I shouted at the soldiers, realising that they would not recognise the kid even though he was right in front of them.

The soldiers immediately looked at Straw Hat with shocked faces, and headed off towards him to try and capture him. Much to my surprise Ace and Sabo started fighting them, protecting Straw Hat.

"So they are his accomplices. It somehow doesn't surprise me. They never seemed to be too normal, even though they never raised suspicion for anything. However their behaviour these last days has been strange indeed" I thought to myself as I started to go towards Straw Hat. He wouldn't escape now. He wouldn't, and I would do anything that I was able to do to prevent this from happening.

I looked at the three of them. It was obvious that the three had experience in fighting by how they were defeating soldier after soldier. They didn't look nervous at all and instead seemed quite confident. However it was obvious that they hadn't wanted this to happen. Soon enough most of the guards had been defeated by them, and the ones that remained had started looking at me, as if pleading for help.

"You won't escape now, Straw Hat!" I shouted as I started running towards the kid avoiding everything that was in my way and that could stop me, as if I was made of smoke. I looked briefly at one of the last soldiers that was still standing up, and with one look ordered him to go to inform the other soldiers of the castle to come to this point and to ask for reinforcements to the government.

I saw that Ace glaring at me for a moment, as did Sabo, and try to attack me. I easily avoided his blow and instead ran towards Luffy, who was staring at me with nervousness painted all over his face. He didn't look as strong as he had seemed during the fight of the other night, when I had finally discovered who he was. He surely was injured.

I quickly threw a punch at him, just to have it blocked by the kid. He wasn't too well off due to the wound that he surely had, but he still was quite strong.

"You're going to be defeated now, Straw hat" I said to the kid with a deathly voice, almost forgetting about the other two people that had been helping him.

"Not if we can avoid that!" I heard Sabo shout as he punched from behind.

I was surprised by this, but I soon regained my composure. I quickly turned around and blocked Ace's fierce attack. They were stronger than what I had ever expected, but that was just what could be expected from people with their ancestry.

"Why are you helping him?" I immediately asked them, not really knowing what to think of this, suddenly finding Ace amazingly familiar for some reason.

"Why do you care, dog of the government?" Ace immediately replied with venom in his voice, as Sabo fought off the last remaining guards, with Luffy beside him, ready to attack me if I did anything to Ace.

A thought suddenly hit me, that look in his eyes… it couldn't be. It was impossible! The son of Dragon and the son of Roger… I chuckled, not having expected the son of Roger to let his feelings so… obvious… especially to someone like me.

"I see, so that is how things are…" I muttered, which made Ace attack me again, even more fiercely than before. I opened my mouth to speak again, but Ace did so first.

"Luffy! Sabo! Get away from here! I will catch up with you guys later!" he shouted.

"Will you be okay?" I heard Luffy immediately say, with shock written all over his voice.

"I told you to go away! I will catch up with you guys later!" Ace shouted again.

"Alright! Luffy, let's go" Sabo then said as he started going towards the door. I felt anger starting to rise inside me.

I growled. I wouldn't let this happen. I attacked Ace quickly, making him defend himself and then ran towards Luffy, who had started to move towards the door with Sabo.

"You won't get away!" I shouted as I did this.

I grinned maniacally as I realised that I was about to stop the kid. My attack had been too quick for him to react to. However something stopped me from doing so, and it had a name: Ace.

"You won't get to even touch him now" Ace said with anger as he blocked my attack. "Luffy! Sabo! Go away, I will be fine!" He then shouted.

I could only look as Monkey D. Luffy, my target, went away, and it was then when I realised that if I didn't get rid of this other kid quickly I would completely lose track of him.

I scowled and attacked Portgas D. Ace again, this time with my weapon and full force. This time I managed to hit him, but barely. All I managed to do was to do some damage to his back and destroy the uniform that he was wearing, exposing his back and a tattoo that I immediately recognised.

"So that is how things are then, Fire fist Ace" I said, feeling anger starting to bubble up inside me.

The young man just smirked. "You won't get to Luffy, you never will" He just said as he got prepared to attack me again.

"We'll see about that" I just said "I'll make sure to defeat you and that brat then, even though I am not really interested in your head" I just said, right before we attacked each other. I grinned maniacally and furiously again, repeating these words again in my mind.

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Sabo's POV:

I didn't like what had just happened, but I knew that ace would be alright. I just had to make sure to get Luffy and I safe before any more soldiers caught up with us. I was sure that Ace would stop Smoker from following us.

"Ace is going to be alright, yes he is. He is strong. He is going to be alright" I muttered with a low tone of voice over and over again.

We ran for several minutes, going through the streets of the town almost randomly. We continued turning, and I really didn't know where to go to exactly. We continued going through several streets and turning again and again, and I soon became aware that someone was following us. I looked nervously behind me, not really knowing who the person that was following us could be. Luffy seemed to have noticed this as well, but he didn't look nervous at all. I turned into another street, and it was then when Luffy stopped following me.

"Luffy!" I said quite nervous as I turned around.

He didn't seem to notice that, and instead he remained still with a grin on his face, waiting for the man that had been following us for a while to appear. I ran towards him, nervous, to try and make him follow me again. It wouldn't be good if we were spotted here. However I stopped dead on my tracks as I recognised the man that was now right in front of Luffy.

"Rayleigh!" I heard Luffy say quite happily, grinning at the man.

The old man just grinned at Luffy. "I've heard about what happened" He just said, looking at me.

I just walked towards both of them, not sure about what to say.

"Luffy, there are soldiers all over the place now searching for you, and they won't stop doing this in quite a long time" He just said.

Luffy's smile immediately dropped. "I fought for a while against Smoker, and I know that I would have been defeated if it wasn't because of Ace, and stronger people will come after us now…" He then said with quite a sad or nervous tone of voice.

I looked at Luffy sympathetically. If we were caught around here we would have to face opponents that were a lot stronger than Smoker, maybe even generals or admirals. I just continued standing there, not really knowing what to say and gettinga very clear idea of where all of this was going to.

"Rayleigh, I don't know if I will be able to defend my comrades and friends with my current level of strength, I am still quite weak…" Luffy said.

I closed my eyes and breathed in and out several times, now knowing fully where this conversation would head to. I stopped paying attention to Luffy and Rayleigh's conversation for several minutes, thinking about what they were suggesting and realising that it was the best thing that they could possibly do now. Gradually I started paying attention to their conversation again and soon the final decision was made. A sad smile appeared in my face as this was done.

"Good then, I'll go with you to train for some time then" Luffy said with a grin on his face, similar to the one that Rayleigh had on his face too.

"Luffy, don't worry. It is the right thing to do" I said, supporting his decision to go to train with Rayleigh for who knows how much time. "I will tell Ace, if you want too" I then added.

Luffy shook his head. "Thank you Sabo, but…" He just said, as he suddenly pulled out of one of his pockets an envelope "…you just have to give him this. My comrades will understand, but I would appreciate if you could tell them about this" He said.

I looked at the envelope with shock. For how long had Luffy been thinking about this? When had he written this exactly?

"How long had you been thinking about this?" I asked him.

"Not too long" He just said with a grin on his face.

"I'll give it to him and tell them then, good luck Luffy" I told him as I got hold of the envelope, with a smile.

"Great! Thanks Sabo!" Luffy said then.

I closed my eyes again as both of them disappeared, and I knew that it would be quite some time until I would see them again, and I knew that I would miss Luffy an awful lot. Barely a minute later Ace appeared, and looked at me with shock.

"Where is Luffy?" He asked me.

I just smiled sadly and handed him the letter that the younger boy had just given me. In the distance the sound of a parting train was heard.


	18. Epilogue

I looked at the sunny sky for what seemed to be the thousandth time in a minute. I couldn't think too clearly. Today it was the second year since Luffy had gone away, and I remembered very clearly that it had all happened more or less around this time. I clutched the old and worn out letter that Sabo had given me on Luffy's behalf all of that time ago and reciting the words that were written on it mentally. I knew every single word and line by memory. Hell, I didn't need to have the letter in front of me to know what that strange boy had written on it.

I remember how strange it had been during the first weeks after he had gone away. I had only known him for a few days, and yet it seemed like his absence was the hardest thing in the world. I was surprised to find myself missing him even more than what I had expected myself to at first. His absence was something foreign, and it had been incredibly hard to return to 'normal'. Well, as normal as things could get with the government finally knowing that I was the commander of the second division of Whitebeard's gang. Things had changed a lot, and yet they remained vaguely the same as before. There were no real massive changes, except the harsh fights that sometimes erupted in the city between Blackbeard's gang and Pop's one. The man was growing strong, and I hated to admit this. However he still wasn't strong enough to dominate large territories. We were still too strong for them to manage that. However their strange connection to the government made things just harder for us.

The Straw Hat gang had all disappeared after that day, probably after a message from Luffy or from that despicable Rayleigh. I could only wonder when they would reappear, when Luffy would come back, but I really didn't care how long it took him. I would forever feel this way about him, and deep down I knew that this thought, notion and feeling was absolutely right and that I would be unable to be changed, which was a funny thing, since I didn't know too much the kid.

I smiled gently and looked at the horizon, more specifically towards where the train station was, as a train arrived quite noisily to it. I stood up and looked at it, as I let all the memories of that day come flooding back to me once more. I remained like this for quite some time, ignoring completely the world around me or the people that looked at me strangely. I was ignoring it so much that, in fact, I didn't even notice the familiar footsteps that were coming closer and closer to me from behind until I heard a voice shout my name.

"Ace!" I suddenly heard an excited voice say.

I turned around, shocked, to identify the person that had just called me by my name and was surprised to find a familiar black haired person jumping towards me.

"W-what the hell Luffy!" I shouted as I fell crashing on the floor as the person that I had missed so much jumped right into me.

He just laughed and then proceeded to hug me, which caused me to blush quite hard. I noticed Rayleigh grinning right behind Luffy.

"I missed you so much Ace" Luffy suddenly said "I'm sorry for not saying goodbye properly, but it was impossible" He then added.

I smiled gently "Don't worry about that" I said, nor really managing to say anything else.

He looked at me and grinned. "I just came back, I still need to find my comrades. We're going to be the most powerful band around now, you'll see" He said quite happily.

I could only laugh at this, entertained. "Pop's is unbeatable" I then said with admiration and as I tried to contain my laughter.

Luffy looked at me and just repeated the same thing, just to then started to talk about other things. I gradually stopped listening to him and instead I focused on him, his face, his hair, his lips… He had visibly changed quite a lot and grown up too, but he still was the same kid that I had known. I smiled again and got closer to him then, not really bothering to change our positions.

"Thank you for coming back Luffy" I whispered into his ear "I lo-" I then started saying, just to be interrupted by him.

"Idiot, I know" He just said then before suddenly joining our lips.


End file.
